A Hero is an Insect in this World
by igetupseteasily
Summary: Mid/End of Batman Begins through Dark Knight and perhaps post Dark Knight. I'm absolutely horrid at summaries. Bruce Wayne has a younger sister. Rating is for future chapters. OCxJoker. Story is being rewritten.
1. One

**Author's Note: Here is the first revamped chapter of **_**A Hero is an Insect in This World**_** I hope that it's a lot better than the first version! As in the first, it is starting towards the end of Batman Begins. Please read and review!**

_Disclaimer: I do not own The Dark Knight, 'nor do I own any of the characters except for my own. Thanks._

* * *

Aubrey Wayne sighed, interlocking her fingers together in front of her and wringing her hands, _what is going on?_ she thought to herself as she peered out of the windows of Wayne Manor. She was off duty from work tonight and as she thought about the things that could have happened to her brother, she bit her lip, chewing on it. She worked at Arkham Asylum, with her dear friend Jonathan Crane._  
_

_Jonathan,_ her head tilted to the side as she looked up at the night sky. She didn't know what to think of him anymore, not after the toxin.

"Miss Wayne?" Aubrey turned towards the voice, her elbow-length, dark brown hair flipping over her right shoulder as she did so. Her vibrant green eyes met her butler's green-gray eyes, and he could see instantly that she was worried. He just didn't know about what.

"Miss Wayne, what's the matter? You're trembling."

"Where's Bruce?" she whispered, turning back to face the window. Her thin, pale hands rested on her equally thin, pale arms, trying to warm herself. Alfred looked out into the night as she did, peering over her head. This was a simple task, as Aubrey wasn't very tall.

He looked at her facial expression, his heart sinking when he did so. Her perfectly plucked eyebrows were furrowed together, and her eyes were glossed over with tears of worry. Her red lips were trembling as she looked out the window, and Alfred was reminded of when Master Bruce had been gone for several years. Aubrey had stared out this same window day after day, waiting for him to come home.

Alfred's phone rang and he answered it. Aubrey turned around to see who it was when she heard her brother cry over the phone, "Alfred. Save me."

Alfred instructed Aubrey to stay in the house. She paced back and forth until she heard the car enter the drive way. She rushed forward to the front door and unlocked the locks, throwing the door open.

"_What happened?_" she shrieked. Her eyes fell to her brother who was in Alfred's arms shivering and crying, and dressed up as a bat.

Aubrey blinked, confused, before she helped Alfred get Bruce up to his room and she sat on the edge of his bed, refusing to leave.

* * *

Alfred watched as she sat there for two days, wondering what was going on through her mind as she stroked his hair lovingly and stared off into space.

Bruce Wayne awoke to someone stroking his hair and he looked up, "Mom?" he mumbled out. Instead of his mother, his sister smiled sadly down upon him, tears in her eyes. "Bree?"

"Hey, Brucey," she smiled softly before standing up, "Alfred! He's up!"

"How long was I out?" Bruce sat up in bed a bit and Aubrey lurched forward a bit, as if to help him before stopping herself.

"Two days," she looked down.

"It's your birthday," Alfred beamed at him, after entering the room.

"It was some kind of gas... I only breathed the slightest amount..." Bruce trailed off and Aubrey looked down somewhat shamefully, she knew of the gas' existence.

"I dread to think, sir," Alfred replied to him, "what would've happened if you'd had a lungful."

"I've felt those effects before..." Bruce continued. Aubrey raised her head, and an eyebrow, confused. "But this was much more potent."

"I took a blood sample and sent it to a laboratory; both discreet," Alfred handed Bruce a piece of paper, "and prompt blood work."

Bruce's eyes scanned the paper work as he read allowed, "Protein-based compounds..." he trailed off. "It might be possible to work up an antidote."

"Shall I contact Wayne Pharmaceutical, sir?" Alfred looked over to Bruce for instructions. Bruce shook his head, "No, I've got a better idea."

Aubrey smiled at her brother, "Before you get to work on that idea, I think we need to have a talk." She lifted her hand up and in it she held Batman's cowl. Bruce grinned sheepishly at his sister, shrugging his shoulders instantly. She scowled, playfully, and smacked him on the shoulder with his own cowl.

* * *

Aubrey went to Arkham Asylum about an hour or so after her brother had woken up, much happier. She hadn't left his side since he'd come home, and now she could give Jonathan Crane a piece of her mind.

She had met Jonathan in college; they had had a few classes together and after he was picked on a few times, she stood up for him. He had yelled at her and told her he didn't need a _little girl_'s help, much less a little _rich_ girl. She had ignored his words and continued to stick up for him, and eventually they had become very good friends once he'd given her the chance to get to know him. With this chance, they had found out they had a lot in common. They had moved in together after college. Aubrey had been twenty three when they'd graduated and that had been the year that they had to announce that Bruce was dead. They began working at Arkham together and Jonathan was promoted to head of Psychiatry. After Bruce's triumph and return not too long ago, Aubrey had moved back into the manor.

She walked into Arkham like a person on a mission, which in all reality she was. Her face was emotionless as she stormed in, her heels clicking loudly on the tiles.

"Miss Wayne, it's so nice to see you," a guard greeted her and she turned to face him.  
"Where's Dr. Crane?"  
"In his off-"  
The guard didn't even get a chance to finish his sentence; Aubrey continued stalking down the hallway until she bust into Jonathan's office.  
"Aubrey!" he grinned up at her, "So glad to see you today? You look lovely.""You're using it as a weapon now, Jon?" she hissed at him.  
"What are you talking about?" he truly looked confused.  
"The Batman was supposedly attacked by a hallucinogen. A fear-inducing hallucinogen. The funny thing is, I know someone who made a fear-inducing hallucinogen," she snarled at him, "Why would you need to use it as a weapon, Jon?"  
"Aubrey, I," Jonathan's phone rang and he held up a finger to say he'd return to their conversation in a moment.

"Hello, Dr. Crane," he spoke calmly into the phone. "Yes. Miss Dawes? Well, if she insists. Yes, of course. No, thank _you_." He hung up the phone promptly after hearing Aubrey's angered breathing.

Aubrey looked at Jonathan curiously, "What about Rachel?"

"Miss Dawes isn't too pleased that Falcone has been moved to our little home."

"Falcone is here? Why?"

Jonathan smiled almost charmingly for the mad man that he was becoming and leaned back in his chair as he tapped his temple. Aubrey gasped, "You experimented with that stuff on Falcone? Jonathan!"

He smiled and patted the top of her head, "Come my dear, we have a visitor."

Aubrey stared at the back of Jonathan's head, dumbfounded, but she followed him anyways in some sort of a stupor.

The two met up with Rachel upstairs and Aubrey smiled and hugged her while Jonathan just shook her hand. Aubrey had known Rachel since she was one or two years old. Rachel was one of Bruce's oldest friends, the other two being Alfred and Aubrey, and she had grown into being one of Aubrey's dearest friends.

Jonathan led the two women to his office, stating that it was perfectly okay with him if Aubrey stayed with them, as long as it was okay with Rachel. He explained that they'd been in the middle of discussing an important matter when Rachel had called and that he wanted to get right back to it when they were done. Rachel shrugged and agreed. Jonathan sat down at his desk and Rachel sat across from him. Aubrey stood off, awkwardly, to the side.

"Miss Dawes, there's nothing to add to the report that I filed with the judge."

"Well," Rachel started, "I have questions about your report. Such as, is it unusual for a fifty-eight year old man with no history of mental illness to have a complete psychotic breakdown?"

Jonathan smiled warmly at her, "Well, yes." Rachel raised an eyebrow as he continued, "But, Miss Dawes, this is a mental asylum for the criminally insane. The unusual is usual here."

Aubrey held in a chuckle and nodded solemnly when Rachel looked to her. Jonathan had described Arkham perfectly.

"But isn't it convenient for Falcone to suddenly develop these symptoms when he's about to be indicted?" Rachel asked.

Jonathan smiled, feigning sympathy. Aubrey noticed the act and scowled a bit as he answered Rachel, "There's nothing convenient about his symptoms, Miss Dawes. Look, I doubt we're even supposed to be having this conversation, but off the record," Jonathan rose and motioned for Rachel to follow him. She did, and Aubrey followed them as well.

Jonathan led them past an orderly talking to a nurse and to the room which, Aubrey guessed, was where they were keeping Falcone.

"We're not talking about a few easily manufactured eccentricities," he finished his sentence and motioned for Rachel to look inside the door.

Aubrey peeked in as well. Falcone was strapped to the bed and as he stared at the door, he mumbled, "Scarecrow...s-scarecrow. s...s.."

Aubrey's eyes widened. She knew exactly what Jonathan had done to Falcone.

"What's 'scarecrow' ?" Rachel asked, confused.

"Patients suffering delusional episodes often focus their paranoia onto an external tormenter. Usually one conforming to the Jungian archetypes," Jonathan shrugged, "For Falcone's case, it would be a scarecrow."

Rachel noticed something, "He's drugged."

"Psychopharmacology is my primary field," he answered her, "I'm a strong advocate." Jonathan stared at Falcone, "Outside he was a giant. In here, only the mind can grant you power."

Rachel turned to Jonathan with disgust, "You enjoy the reversal. You actually _enjoy_ it."

Jonathan smiled and shrugged, "I respect the mind's power over the body. It's why I do what I do."

Aubrey shivered. That's what he had told her when she had questioned his toxin.

Rachel glared at him, "And I do what I do to put scum like Falcone behind bars, not in therapy. I want my own psychiatric consultant to have full access to Falcone, including blood work. I want to find out what you have him on."

Aubrey gulped as Jonathan just shrugged. Jonathan Crane may look like a tall, thin, nerd to some people, but he was a force not to be reckoned with.

As the elevator door opened, the three stepped in. Jonathan inserted a key into the panel and Aubrey's eyes widened.

"First thing tomorrow, then." Jonathan told Rachel. Aubrey knew that this was Jonathan's way of cleaning out Falcone's system before he was tested.

Rachel smirked, "Tonight, actually. I've already paged Dr. Lehmann over at County General."

Aubrey squeezed her eyes shut as Jonathan turned the key in the panel. She knew what would come next.

"As you wish," Jonathan grinned as the doors closed and the elevator descended downwards.

Aubrey was tempted to warn her friend immediately. As she opened her mouth to speak, a small noise came out of it and Jonathan turned to her, glaring menacingly. She looked back down and acted as if she was clearing her throat out.

The doors to the elevator opened and the girls found themselves looking over Jonathan Crane's shoulder into a dark, decrepit corridor with water leaking everywhere. They followed Jonathan into a room where tables stretched off all around. The tables were covered with bags of powder, scales, and aluminum barrels.

As Jonathan Crane looked around with a smile on his face, the two girls both look disgusted. Aubrey looked disgusted and ready to strangle the man while Rachel looked confused. There were tons of inmates working the powder and a few armed thugs who looked up curiously.

"This is where we make the medicine," Jonathan smiled, speaking oddly, "Perhaps you should have some, Miss Dawes...clear your head."

He and Aubrey each turned to face Rachel, but she had vanished. Jonathan smiled and followed the only direction Rachel could have gone off in. Aubrey followed him, still angry and quickened her pace to keep up with him. As Rachel stood near the elevator doors hitting all of the buttons, though none would work while Jonathan had the key, Aubrey tried to stop him from putting his mask on. As she grabbed his arm, he pushed, causing her to fall off of him.

Rachel turned and stared at Jonathan's masked face, disturbed. He reached out towards her, "Boo." A small puff of gas sprayed from his sleeve. Rachel stumbled backwards, coughing and choking. She looked up at Jonathan and screamed.

Jonathan's thugs drug Rachel away and Aubrey grabbed his sleeve, nearly toppling over as she pulled him to face her, "You sick bastard! Why did you do that to her?"

Jonathan growled, and spoke in his 'Scarecrow' voice, "Get away from me," as he slapped Aubrey hard. Aubrey fell down and held her cheek shocked as Jonathan grabbed Rachel's face to look at him, "Who knows you're here?"

Rachel shook her head, terrified and Jonathan repeated himself. She pulled away and buried her head in her arms, crying with fear. Then, the lights go out and the thugs look around as Jonathan took off his mask. Aubrey stayed on the floor, holding her cheek, still in shock.

"He's here," Jonathan smiled softly, looking around.

"Who's here?" one of his nameless thugs asked.

"The Batman."

The thugs looked at each other, nervously. "Well, what do we do?"

"What does anyone do when a prowler comes around?" Jonathan asked, "Call the police."

The thug looked at Crane as if he'd gone insane, which Aubrey was really starting to believe that he had, "You really want the cops here?"

"At this point, they're irrelevant," Jonathan spoke nonchalantly, "But the Batman...he has a talent for disruption. Let the cops wrangle him. Force him outside. The police will take him down." He then pointed at the inmates, "Get them out of here."

"What about her?" one of the thugs asked, pointing to Rachel.

"She's gone," Jonathan spoke, "I gave her a concentrated dose. The mind can only take so much."

"The things they say about him," a different thug spoke up, nervous. "Can he really fly?"

"I heard he can disappear," a new thug added in as Jonathan backed into the shadows, smiling at the last person to speak, "Well, I guess we'll find out, won't we?"

His thugs moved to either side of the door and the glass smashes. Something metal lands near Aubrey and she picks it up, fingering it in the darkness. A batarang. She pocketed it; to save Bruce the trouble of making another. A shadow drops across the room from a high window and Rachel screamed which caused Aubrey to jump.

The two thugs advanced through the darkness and one is grabbed from above and pulled upwards, screaming. The other peers up into the dark, with his gun aimed. He fired and a shadow crumpled onto him, which was the first thug. The second thug rolled the body off of him and scrambled to his feet. Batman struck him from behind, knocking him unconscious. Faintly, Aubrey could hear sirens from outside.

Batman looked at Rachel and then saw Aubrey standing with wide eyes. He looked back to Rachel when Jonathan burst out of the shadows, his arm aimed at Batman's face. Batman grabbed Crane's arm, ducking away from the puff of gas that escaped the sleeve. Batman spins Jonathan around and rips off his mask. He wrenched the arm towards Jonathan's face and pulled out the container of toxin. "Taste of your own medicine doctor?" Batman growled as he squeezed the toxin and a cloud of dust sprayed into Jonathan's face.

Aubrey, who still cared for the Jonathan that _she_ knew cried out, putting her hands over her mouth as Jonathan fell to the ground, choking. Batman turned Jonathan over and pulled him up to his face, "Who are you working for!"

Jonathan's eyes were wide with fear, "Ra's. Ra's Al Ghul."

Aubrey noticed that Batman reacted to this name; he pulled Jonathan closer to him, tighter, "Ra's Al Ghul is dead, Crane! Who are you really working for! Crane!"

Jonathan stared at him, his eyes glazed over, before smiling. "Dr. Crane isn't here right now, but if you'd like to make an appointment..." his voice trailed off. Aubrey let out another sob when she heard him speak like that. The sirens were louder. Batman grabbed Rachel and she lashed out in fear. Batman rendered her in a grip so that she falls unconscious and looks to Aubrey, "Come with me."

She stared at Jonathan's body on the ground as he laughed maniacally, "Aubrey," he growled, "Come with me."

Aubrey sniffled and wiped at her eyes, holding her hand out to her brother.

* * *

Aubrey knelt by Rachel's body, brushing her hair out of her face, when Batman and Gordon enter the rafters. Gordon looks at Aubrey confused and then notices Rachel, "What's happened to her?"

"Crane poisoned her with his toxin. He was the third man at the docks."

Aubrey didn't understand what they were talking about. Bruce had only confessed to his being Batman, he had left vital chunks out of his story.

"Let me take her down to the medics-" Gordon began. Aubrey's hand stopped going through Rachel's hair at the same time Batman cut him off, "They can't help her. But I can."

Lights entered the stairwell. but the four were hidden by shadows. Batman reached down and pressed a switch in the heel of his boot, "I need to get her the antidote before the damage becomes permanent.""How long does she have?" Gordon asked.

"Not long. Get her downstairs, meet me in the alley on the Narrows side."

"How will you get out?"Batman pointed at his boot, "I called for backup. Crane's been refining his toxin. Stockpiling it."

"What was he planning?"

"I don't know, but he's working for someone else."

Gordon frowned at a loud squealing noise, whilst Aubrey smiles softly, knowing what it was. "What is that?" Gordon asks.

"Backup," Batman answers.

Thousands of bats poured in and Aubrey and Gordon run down the stairwell, covering Rachel as they descend.

"How is she?" Batman popped out of nowhere and Gordon and Aubrey both jumped. A searchlight shone on them so Batman grabbed Rachel and also took Aubrey's hand.

"Take my car," Gordon offered. Aubrey smiled at how sweet he was.

"I brought mine," Batman disappeared into the dark end of the alley, taking his sister and Rachel with him.

"Your's?" Gordon asks, confused as blinding headlights flare and an engine roars. Gordon dove out of the way as the Batmobile came flying out of the darkness. His jaw dropped, "I gotta get me one of those."

As Batman drove, Rachel, who was seated on Aubrey's lap, was coming to. She hung onto Aubrey for dear life, terrified. As a cop car pulled across the alley, Batman hit the accelerator and sped towards the car. The cops were in awe as the Batmobile smashes into the cop car, the huge tires crushing the bonnet and bouncing the Batmobile over the cop car. The batmobile tore left and accelerated down the street.

Aubrey took in a deep breath, turning to her brother, "And you got your license how, again?"

He chuckled lightly, continuing with his manic driving. Rachel is terrified and Aubrey held her head to her chest, petting her hair soothingly, "Shh, Rachel, you've been poisoned, sweetie. Just stay calm. We're going to help you."

Rachel was hyperventilating by this point. "Just breathe slowly and close your eyes," Batman suggested.

Rachel obeyed, but only for a moment before opening them again, "No, that's worse." Aubrey continued to pet Rachel's head, "Alright, close your eyes and breathe slowly. Think of when I was four and you were eight and we were playing with dolls, alright?"

Rachel becomes terrified when the batmobile stops and recoiled when Batman looked at her. She began to struggle. "Trust him," Aubrey whispered, he saved your life."

When they finally reach the Batcave, Rachel is passed out and Aubrey passed her out hurriedly to Bruce. He carried her into the damp blackness of the caverns and laid her on his work table. A container sat there with a paper from Lucius Fox. Batman opened it and removed a vial. He plugged it into a pneumatic syringe and put the syringe between his teeth. He rushed to Rachel and injected her in her biceps. Aubrey gripped his hand tightly as they watched Rachel's breathing slow.

Batman turns to face Aubrey, "Why were you there?"

"I," Aubrey tried to think of a way to say it,. When she knew there was no other way, she hung her head down in shame with a sigh. "I knew about the toxin," she admitted guiltily, "he had told me about it a few times and when you said what happened to you, I was enraged. I approached him and told him I was mad at him for using it as a weapon. When he asked what I was talking about, I said that some reporter mentioned what had happened to Batman. He laughed it off as if it was nothing. Then Rachel came to talk to him about Falcone. And, he was using it on the patients!" Aubrey sobbed, "He's lost his mind!"

Bruce squeezed her hand in reassurance that everything would be okay and moments later Rachel's eyes flickered open. Because of the bats that she saw above, she closed her eyes again and muttered under her breath.

"How do you feel?" Batman asked.

"Where are we?" No answer. "Why did you bring me here?"

"If I hadn't, your mind would be lost. You were poisoned."

Rachel thought, trying to remember. "I remember...nightmares. The face. This mask...Crane! It was Crane!" She struggled to get off of the table and stand. "I have to tell the police, we've got-" she slipped and Aubrey rushed forward to catch her.

Rachel turned to her, "What are you...?"

"She wanted to make sure you were okay," Batman began, "And relax. Gordon has Crane."

Aubrey and Batman laid Rachel back on the table. "Is Sergeant Gordon your friend?"

"I don't have the luxury of friends," Batman looked away.

"Why did you save my life?" Rachel asked. Aubrey scoffed as if it were obvious and when Rachel looked over, she gave a small smile.

"Gotham needs you."

"And you serve Gotham?"

"I serve justice."

"Perhaps you do."

Batman stepped into the light and he held a pneumatic syringe and two vials. Rachel stared at him. "I'm going to give you a sedative. You're going to wake up back at home," Batman held up the two vials, "When you do, get these to Gordon and Gordon alone. Trust no one."

"What are they?"

"The antidote. One for Gordon to inoculate himself, the other to start mass-production." Batman handed her the two vials and she looked at him curiously as he continued to speak, "Crane was just a pawn. He was working for someone else."

"Ghul..."Rachel remembered, "Something Al...Ghul."

"Ra's Al Ghul." Batman nodded coldly, "It's not him. He's dead."

"How do you know?"

"I watched him die." He approached her with the syringe and she offered her arm. Batman injected her and her eyes closed. Batman removed his cowl and stood there, no longer Batman, but Bruce Wayne, staring at her sleeping form. Aubrey put a hand on his shoulder and squeeze, reassuringly.

Bruce let out a sigh and in his hand he held another syringe. He held it up to his sister, "You need the antidote, too, Aubrey."

She cringed, she hated shots. She held out her arm and squeaked as the fluid burned it's way into her veins.

* * *

**Author's Note: There's my rewrite. It's basically the same except I condensed chapters one and two together, fixed it so it was all one tense, and fixed spelling errors. I hope it's better!**


	2. Two

**Author's Note: Here is the second revamped chapter of **_**A Hero is an Insect in This World**_** I hope that it's a lot better than the first version! Also, this is the end of Batman begins as the first redone chapter had both chapters one and two in it. Please read and review!**

_Disclaimer: I do not own The Dark Knight, 'nor do I own any of the characters except for my own. Thanks._

* * *

Bruce emerged from the bookcase and the two siblings could hear the noise of the party outside of the room. Alfred stood there with a suit for Bruce and a dress for Aubrey. The siblings each grabbed their respective clothing and began dressing quickly.

"Rachel's sedated," Bruce said, as he buttoned up his shirt, "You can take her home."

"Very good sir," Alfred nodded.

"Is Fox still here?" Alfred nodded again and Bruce continued, "Tell the staff to stop serving drinks and to move on after the cake." Alfred nodded a third time and as Bruce's hand touched the door knob, Alfred stopped him and handed him a towel, motioning to his face. Bruce still had black makeup around his eyes. Aubrey giggles and leaves the room so that Bruce can clear the paint off of his face. Her eyes brighten when she and her brother finally entered the ballroom and saw all of the tables full of food.

A female guest cried out, pointing, "There they are!"

The band began to play the 'Happy Birthday' song and Aubrey giggled, making her way through the crowd to the buffet table quickly, while Bruce had to mingle his way there. It was his birthday after all, she thought, she shouldn't have to stand there, too.

"Any word on that...item?" Bruce asked Lucius as Aubrey filled a plate with food nearby, starving.

Lucius nodded and sent a glance towards Aubrey, curious. Bruce mouthed 'she knows' and Lucius nodded again, leaning in, "A contact in heavy weapons tipped me off. It's a microwave emitter. It vaporizes water."

Aubrey made the connection before Bruce, "Could you...use it to put a biological agent into the air?"

Lucius nodded, "Sure, if the water supply were poisoned before you vaporized it."

Aubrey and Bruce each stood solemnly while William Earle, the biggest jerk on the face of the planet in Aubrey's opinion, walked over, "Happy birthday Bruce."

Bruce turned to him, "Mr. Earle, so good of you to come."

Earle smiled, "Miss Wayne, you look beautiful." Aubrey forced a smile on to her face as he turned back to Bruce, which she then made a grossed out face to Lucius, "Not everybody thought you'd make it this far."

"Sorry to disappoint," Bruce and Aubrey smiled, "How did the stock offering go?"

"Very well. The price soared."

"Who was buying?"

"A variety of funds and brokerages...it's all a bit technical- the key thing is, our company's future is secure."

Bruce nodded and gestured to Lucius, "Have you met Lucius Fox?"

"Of course. Lucius, how are you?"

"Fox is showing me the ropes down at Applied Sciences... he's a great untapped resource at our company, aren't you, ?" Lucius gave Bruce a warning look and Bruce winked before moving off.

Aubrey remained with the two older men, still eating her food. Lucius laughed, "He's a good kid."

Earle's tone turned cold, "Fox, forget about kissing Wayne's ass to get back in. I'm merging Applied Sciences with Central Archiving and you're on the top of the early retirement list." Lucius' smile faded and Earle grinned wickedly, "Didn't you get the memo?" Aubrey scowled at the man as he walked away from the two of them.

An elderly society woman, whom Aubrey could not remember the name of at all, tapped Aubrey on the shoulder, "Aubrey, do you know where your brother is?"

"Um, no miss, may I help you with something?" Aubrey replied after swallowing the food in her mouth.

"Well, there's someone here for him, a Mr. Ra's Al Ghul?" She turned to an asian man, "Did I pronounce that correctly?"

The man nodded and Aubrey raised an eyebrow, grabbing Bruce without even looking as he almost walked past, "Ra's Al Ghul," she whispered, nodding her head in the man's direction.

"You're not Ra's Al Ghul. He's dead."

The old woman laughed nervously confused as a voice from behind answered Bruce's statement, "But is Ra's Al Ghul immortal?" A man whom Aubrey had never seen before, but Bruce knew as Ducard, stood there. "Are his methods supernatural..?"

Bruce smiled, "Or cheap parlor tricks to conceal your true identity...Ra's?"  
The man smiled. "Surely you don't begrudge me dual identities?" Ra's Al Ghul walked Bruce through the party and Aubrey stayed close behind them. "I've been admiring your work, even as it's interfered with my plans," his look turned to one of sorrow, "You were my greatest student...until you betrayed me."

Aubrey bit her lip, confused. She made a mental note to ask Bruce about what happened in the seven years he'd been gone. And this time, she wanted the real answer.

Bruce looked at the guests, "Your quarrel is with me. Let these people go."

"As you wish. But they don't have long to live. Your antics at the Asylum have forced my hand.."

"Crane was working for you," the Wayne's cut him off in unison.

Ra's smiled, "How cute," he mumbled. "His toxin is derived from the organic compound in our blue poppies. Crane was able to weaponize the compound. A brilliant scientist, but no visionary," Aubrey growled at this, "He just wanted money and power. I told him the plan was to hold the city to ransom, but, in fact..."

"You're going to unleash Crane's poison on the entire city," Bruce finished.

Ra's Al Ghul nodded seriously, "Then watch Gotham tear itself apart through fear."

Bruce grabbed a champagne glass and tapped it, stumbling around the room. He gave a very fake-drunk speech and told everyone to get out of his house. Aubrey put her hand over her forehead in embarrassment.

"Please, everyone," she held her brother, trying to support him, "Just go home, he's had way too much to drink. He doesn't mean it."

Once all of the guests left, the three entered the library, which was free of guests. "You're going to destroy millions of lives," Bruce turned to him.

"No. Billions of lives," Ra's corrected him, "Gotham is just the beginning. The world will watch in terror as the greatest city falls. Anarchy and chaos will spread. Mankind will...ravage itself. The species will be culled and the balance of nature will be restored. The planet will be saved for all species.

The Waynes looked at him, disgusted, "You're inhuman," they spoke in unison again.

"Don't question my humanity, Bruce- when I found you in that fetid hole you were lost. I saved you. I showed you a path and took away your fear; I made you what you are," he stared at Bruce, "And in return, you attacked me and burned my home." The men in the gallery were lighting fire to the drapery, "Since then, you've used my skills and techniques to interfere with my plans; plans in which you were supposed to play a part." Aubrey gasped softly.

"What part was that, Ra's? To put my company at your disposal? To obtain your microwave emitter and plant it somewhere in Gotham?"

Ra's nodded, "You were supposed to be Gotham's destroyer. Instead, you became her only protector."

"You underestimate Gotham," Bruce told him.

"You underestimate Gotham's corruption," Ra's shot back, "We've infiltrated every aspect of the city's infrastructure...Gotham is helpless without you. That's why I'm here."

"To kill me?" Bruce asked. Aubrey wrapped her arms around Bruce's arm that hung limp at his side, protectively.

Ra's looked at Bruce and shook his head, "No. To bring you back to us. Bruce, the world will need great men like you-"

Bruce cut him off, "To take power."

"This is not about power. This is about saving the planet before man destroys it with his greed. With his pollution, his weaponry..."

Ra's held out his hand and a ninja threw him a sword. Aubrey shrieked as it flew past her, but Ra's caught it swiftly in one hand. He handed the sword to Bruce, and put the point on his own throat.

"Do you still doubt me? Apply a few pounds of pressure. Buy your precious city a reprieve." He stared at Bruce, challenging him, "Kill me. Then you'll understand how simple it is to do what's necessary."

Bruce stared for a moment, thinking. "No. I will not take life. I will not be a part of this."

"But you already are!" Ra's exclaimed, "You've given Gotham a potent symbol of fear."

"I frighten _criminals_."

"You frighten _everybody_. A giant vengeful bat? What better apocalyptic symbol to haunt Gotham's dreams?" Ra's snorted, rolling his eyes to look away from the two.

Bruce stared at him and pulled the sword from his throat. Ra's stared back and pulled at the handle of his cane, producing a sword, "Then die with Gotham."

Aubrey watched, terrified as her brother fought this strange man that had crashed her brother's birthday party, and as their child hood home caught more and more on fire.

"Perhaps you taught me too well," Bruce smirked at Ra's.

Aubrey shrieked, as a portion of the burning ceiling fell onto Bruce, "Or perhaps you'll never learn," Ra's smirked at him, "to mind your surroundings as well as your opponent. You burnt my house and left me for dead. I'm going to do the same to you, except I'm going to one up you, Bruce," Aubrey nearly rolled her eyes, Ra's was talking to her unconscious brother, of whom she was trying to shove the ceiling off of.

"I'm going to take your baby sister with me," he grabbed Aubrey Wayne by the hair and she squeaked, falling backwards. He yanked her up, some of the hair falling out of her messy bun and she struggled, trying to claw at him with her hands.

"No one goes in," Ghul spoke to a guard, "And no one comes out."

The guard nodded.

Ra's shoved her into a helicopter and then followed after, "Comfy?"

She spit at him.

He smiled, "Now, now, now. I'm _sure_ you were raised better than that, Miss Wayne. Allow me to properly introduce myself, my name is Ra's Al Ghul, and I'm the one who taught your brother all of those...nifty fighting techniques."

Aubrey snorted when he said nifty, "How lovely for you. I'm Aubrey Martha Wayne, and I'd _love_ to scratch your eyeballs out right now."

Ra's Al Ghul smiled uneasily and shifted a bit in his seat, mumbling, "The pretty ones are always crazy.."

Ra's put a gas mask on as the helicopter descended and offered one to Aubrey. She accepted it with an eye roll. Ra's glanced down at his wrists which were bleeding from where Aubrey had clawed him. Assessing no real damage done, he paid no more attention to them.

They climbed onto the train on the monorail and Aubrey briefly thought about jumping off, wondering if there was anywhere she could land that wouldn't kill her.

She stared out the window, staring at complete chaos. She could have sworn she even saw Jonathan riding a horse through Gotham, which raised many questions in her head. _When did Gotham get horses? When did Jonathan learn how to ride a horse? Where is he even going?_

A thump on the roof knocked her out of her trance and she noticed Ra's Al Ghul climb up there. After a few moments of hearing Bruce and Ra's fight, Aubrey poked her head up and noticed that Bruce had rigged some type of cord around the monorail. Ra's was pushing his thumbs into Bruce's neck and as soon as Aubrey got right behind him, Bruce flew out from underneath Ra's, his cloak rigid. He grabbed Aubrey and they flew in the air as Ra's Al Ghul plummeted to his death.

"Eugh," Aubrey muttered, turning her face into Bruce's chest as the train hit the ground. She looked back up at him, eyes wide and curious, "So, what exactly happened while you were away, Brucey?"

* * *

Mr. Earle walked into Wayne Enterprises the next morning and grinned broadly at the secretary. "Good morning," he nodded to her. She stood up, "Oh, um, Mr. Earle, the meeting's already started."

His eyebrows furrowed in confusion, "What meeting?" He stepped into the conference room and was shocked to see Lucius Fox at the table. "Fox, I thought I fired you."

"You did," Lucius answered him with a smile, "I got another job."

"Which one?" Earle demanded.

Aubrey sat in a chair next to Lucius smirking, which caused Earle to look at her now, confused. Lucius was beaming, "Your's."

"Under who's authority?"

Aubrey smirked, "Mine and my brother's, actually," she pushed the speed dial on the conference room phone, "Would you like to speak to him?" She hit the speaker button and as Bruce picked up the phone, Earle's angry voice filled his ear.

"What makes you think you can decide who's running Wayne Enterprises?"

"The fact that my sister and myself are the owners?" he spoke with amusement.

"What are you talking about? The company went public a week ago!"

"And I bought most of the shares," Bruce explained to him. Aubrey held in a giggle at the look on Earle's face. "Through various charitable foundations and trusts and so forth," he paused, "And what I didn't buy, Aubrey did."

"It's all a bit technical," Aubrey spoke up with a small smile on her face, "But the important thing is that we know the future of our company is secure. Right, Lucius?" she smiled over at him.

He grinned, "Right you are," he then turned to Mr. Earle, "Didn't you get the memo?"

William Earle looked back at Aubrey Wayne who sat in her seat as perfect as a young woman could look, beaming broadly at him. He dropped his head and retreated out of the room. Aubrey turned to Lucius smiling and gave him a high five.

That same night, Batman landed on the roof of the police station. He noticed the spotlight with a metal stencil bolted to it. He tapped it twice, "Nice."

Gordon crushed his Styrofoam coffee cup and turned to face Gotham's dark knight, "Couldn't find any mob bosses to strap to the light."

Batman let out a low chuckle as Gordon turned the light off. "Well, Sergeant?"

"Oh, it's Lieutenant, now. You've really started something..."

"But..?" The Batman was confused for a moment. He'd only meant to help Gotham.

"But there's a lot of weirdness out there right now. The Narrows is lost. We still haven't picked up Crane or even half of the inmates of Arkham that he freed in his escape."

"We will. Gotham will return to normal."

"Will it? What about escalation?"

"Escalation?" Batman asked, confused.

"We start carrying semiautomatics, they buy automatics. We start wearing Kevlar, they buy armor-piercing rounds..."

"And?"

"And...you're wearing a mask and jumping off of rooftops," Gordon reaches into his pocket, "Take this guy for example," he pulled out a clear evidence bag, "Armed robbery, double homicide. He's got a taste for theatrics. Like you." He handed the evidence bag to Batman. "He leaves a calling card."

There was a playing card inside of the evidence bag and when Batman turned the bag over to look at it more closely, he sees that the card is a Joker. "I'll look into it." He stepped away to leave.

Gordon looked up at him thoughtfully, "I never said thank you."

Batman looked out at the lights of Gotham, "You'll never have to." He dropped from the rooftop as Gordon smiled into the night.

* * *

**Author's Note: Yay! Chapter two's rewritten, so I met my quota for the night. Anyways, as I stated in the first version of this story (I forgot to do so in this) my ages of the characters thus forth are as follows: Bruce and Rachel are thirty, and I believe I had Aubrey at twenty six and Jonathan at twenty seven. Thanks!**


	3. Three

**Author's Note: Here's the revamped version of chapter three. Enjoy!**

_Disclaimer: I do not own The Dark Knight and I also don't own any of the characters._

* * *

"This is horrible," Aubrey sighed as she stretched out on the couch, watching the news. Alfred walked up behind her and nodded.

"Good evening every one, this is Mike Engel with GCN and you're watching Gotham Tonight. We're here tonight to present you with a GCN exclusive report. Earlier today, Gotham National Bank was robbed. The manager of the bank is still in the process of being questioned but because of security cameras and witnesses of the robbery, we have been given some details. First of all, the group of men were all clad in clown masks when they robbed the bank. The bizarre thing about this is that all of the men killed each other off until just one of them was left standing. This one pulled off his clown mask to reveal his face to the cameras and to the bank manager. He had face paint on underneath his mask done in a clown fashion and what we're told are scars on the sides of his mouth. This man climbed onto a bus to escape. We have a picture here to show you," he paused and the picture filled the screen in the living room of the Wayne penthouse.

The image was slightly fuzzy as it had come out of the security camera. There was a man who's face was pure white on the screen and had his hair flying everywhere as he laughed. He had black makeup outlining and covering over his eyes. Aubrey leaned forward when she saw the dark colors painted upwards from his mouth and over his lips in the form of a smile and could make out the slight bumps that must have been the scars Engel had spoken about.

Aubrey shivered and turned the TV off, tossing the remote aside, "So that's who Bruce has been looking for?"

Alfred nodded, "I believe so, miss. Would you like anything to eat?"

Aubrey shook her head, "No, Alfred, I'm alright. Thank you." Her phone went off and she opened it slowly, before gasping. She jumped up and ran out of the pent house, leaving her phone behind her. Alfred picked up the phone, which was still open and read the text message. It was from Bruce. _I've got Crane._

Aubrey pushed the doors to Arkham open and flew down the hall, pushing past various doctors and guards, opening doors to wings so hard that they slammed into the wall and bounced off. Jonathan Crane was the first person outside of her 'circle' that she cared about. Her circle consisted of Bruce, Rachel, Alfred, and Jim Gordon. And she'd be damned if she let some asshole doctor take care of Jonathan.

She found Dr. Jeremiah Arkham who beamed down at her, "Miss Wayne, hello. I didn't think you were working today."

"I'm not," she spoke quickly, "Have they brought Jonathan in yet?"

"Yes, he's in the-"

"Who's his doctor?"

"Now, Miss Wayne-"

"Who's his doctor?" she asked again. Jonathan Crane had been the head psychiatrist when he'd been here, and since he'd gone off the deep end, that was now Aubrey's post.

"Well, Dr. Walken wanted to-"

"Denied. No," Aubrey spoke quickly, putting her hair up in a bun, "I override that decision. I will be Jonathan's doctor and I don't want anyone saying anything about it. I know how the boy works, and he will be in my care. Where is he?"

Arkham's brows furrowed. When he had appointed Aubrey to the position, he thought that she would be a little less aggressive than Crane had been. Arkham had been wrong.

"He's in one of the temporary rooms until he's fully diagnosed. As his doctor, you must diagnose him."

"Thank you, Dr. Arkham," Aubrey made her way to where Jonathan was and entered the room with a smirk on her face. When the door closed, she leaned against it, "Jonathan, Jonathan, Jonathan Crane," she sang out, "Fancy seeing you here."

"Aubrey? I thought Walken..."

"I overrode it. I'm the head psychiatrist now, my dear. They gave me your post," she sat down across from him and he looked her over. It had only been a month, but she looked much different to him.

Her oval face looked thinner with her hair up. He noticed that she was wearing a black pencil skirt with a black sleeveless top which had ruffles on the chest and black heels. Then, he noticed she was wearing makeup. Her face looked a bit tanner and her green eyes were outlined with black. Her high cheekbones were more noticeable because she had blush on them, and her lips had clear gloss on them.

"You were going out to dinner when you heard," he observed.

She nodded, "I was," and put her hair down. It was longer today, she'd straightened it, and Jonathan caught a whiff of vanilla when she did so. She folded her hands on the table, "Why?"

His eyes met hers and he noticed the hurt, confused expression in them. "Aubrey..." he trailed. Had he had use of his hands, he would have held hers, but he was restrained in a straight jacket.

"You told me," she took a deep breath and he saw tears forming in her eyes, "that you were using that fear toxin to try and reverse it, to get rid of fear," there were tears stuck to her eye lashes now, mingling with her mascara, "you lied to me," and then the tears fell, coated with black mascara.

"Aubrey," he spoke, trying to hold in emotion, "I'm sorry. I couldn't just tell you, you would have thought I was crazy."

She laughed, "You're in Arkham, now, sweetheart and you're worried about me thinking you were crazy?" She wiped at her eyes and whispered, "I would have protected you."

Aubrey was broken up inside. Most people would be concerned that she would have protected someone like Jonathan Crane. However, Aubrey knew that Jonathan hadn't entirely known what was going on when Ra's had instructed him on what to do. He hadn't been told all of the details.

"Aubrey," he whispered, looking in her eyes, "I want to hug you so badly right now," he chuckled sadly, "I can't stand to see you cry. I've never been able to stomach it."

He remembered when they had moved in together. She had cried every day because of Bruce's disappearance. The crying had been much worse when she had to report that Bruce was dead, especially when she hadn't known if he was still alive or not. Aubrey stood up and walked behind Jonathan, undoing the straps of his jacket, and pulling it off of him. He was still dressed in his clothing from the night that Ra's Al Ghul had been there.

Almost immediately, Jonathan stood up and wrapped his arms around Aubrey. Her arms were around his neck and his around her waist, hugging her close to him as she stood on her tip toes to reach him. She broke down immediately.

"My heart is breaking knowing that you have to be here," she whispered, looking out of the corners of her eyes at the glass window in the room to see if anyone was watching, "I promise you," her voice was softer now so only he could hear her, and it wouldn't be picked up on the camera, "I'm going to get you out of here."

He squeezed her tightly, "I love you, Aubrey."

She cuddled her head into his neck with a sob, "I love you, too, Jon."

* * *

Aubrey chuckled as she covered her mouth, laughing at a joke that Harvey Dent had made. She was out eating dinner with Harvey Dent and Rachel Dawes. Harvey and Rachel were two of her closest friends. After a while, Aubrey turned the conversation to Maroni's trial, "Harvey, wait, the news reporters said that that guy pulled a gun on you, are you alright?"

He nodded, "Don't worry about it, Aubrey, as Rachel said, if I'm not getting guns pulled on me, I'm not doing my job right."

Aubrey smiled and then rolled her eyes when she noticed that Bruce had walked into the restaurant.

"Rachel!" He called out, sounding like a huge snob, "Fancy seeing you here."

"Yeah," Rachel replied dully, "Fancy that."

"Oh! Rachel, this is Natasha. Natasha, this is Rachel. Natasha is the prima ballerina for the Moscow ballet." Bruce grinned as he introduced his date, "And Natasha, sweetie, this is my sister, Aubrey."

Aubrey smiled, pretending to be excited, tracing the rim of her champagne glass bored, "Charmed, sweetheart." Natasha smiled back at her clearly not thrilled to meet Aubrey either.

"Oh wow," Rachel grinned, "Harvey's taking me next week."

"So...you like ballet?" Bruce turned to Harvey.

Aubrey snorted in a very unladylike fashion causing Natasha to raise an eyebrow, and Rachel gave Bruce a warning look, "Bruce, this is Harvey Dent."

Harvey beamed, "It's nice to meet you, Bruce. Rachel's told me everything about you."

"Oh, I certainly hope not," Bruce grinned. Aubrey and Rachel shared a small smile while Natasha and Harvey stayed on the outside of their private joke. "Say, why don't we push a couple of tables together?"

"I'm not.." Harvey thought for a moment, "I'm not sure they'll let us do that."

Bruce shrugged and waved it off with his hand, "Oh, well, they should. I own the place." Aubrey smacked her forehead in embarrassment and turned to Harvey, "He's adopted, really."

Harvey smiled softly, happy that Aubrey was there to keep him amused, but helped Bruce move the table. Aubrey sat in-between Rachel and Bruce and Harvey sat across from Rachel, with Natasha across from Bruce.

"I can't imagine raising children in a city like this," Natasha spoke.

"Well, we were raised here," Aubrey gestured to Bruce and herself.

"Yeah," Bruce continued, "And we turned out just fine."

"Is Wayne Manor in the city limits?" Harvey threw into the conversations.

"Well, yes it is. You know, as the new D.A, you might want to know where your jurisdiction en_**ds**_." Bruce yelled the last part of his remark, because his sister had jabbed him in the ribs with her elbow discreetly, and smiled over at him sweetly, warning him.

"Well, I'm talking about the kind of city who idolizes a masked vigilante," Natasha continued.

"Gotham City is proud of an ordinary citizen standing up for what is right," Harvey grinned.

"Gotham needs heroes like you, elected officials, not someone who thinks he is above the law."

"Exactly," Bruce and Aubrey chuckled, speaking in unison, "Who appointed the Batman?"

After taking a moment to recover from the shock of the Waynes speaking in unison Rachel whispered "they do that sometimes" into Harvey's ear. Although they were not twins, the two had been so close that occasionally they did speak in unison. Harvey continued the conversation, "Well, we did. All of us who stood by and let the scum take over this city."

"But this is a democracy, Harvey," Natasha cut him off.

"When their enemies were at the gate," Harvey began, "the Romans would suspend democracy and appoint one man to protect the city. It wasn't considered an honor. It was considered public service."

"Harvey," Rachel spoke with a playful tone, "The last person who they appointed was Caesar, and he didn't want to give up his power!" The girls all laughed.

"**You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain**," Harvey spoke, "Look, whoever the Batman is, he doesn't want to do this forever, who would? He's looking for someone to take up his mantle."

"And that someone could be you," Natasha told Harvey.

"Maybe," he grinned.

"What if Harvey Dent is the Caped Crusader?" Natasha tilted her head and jokingly covered his face with her hand. Aubrey, Rachel, and Bruce gave a small chuckle. Harvey gave a small laugh, too, grabbing onto Rachel's hand, "If I was sneaking out every night, I think someone would have noticed."

"Well, I'm sold," Bruce spoke. _Oh, no_, Aubrey thought as he continued, "I'm going to throw you a fundraiser."

"Bruce, I'm grateful, really, but I'm not up for election for another three years."

"You don't understand," Bruce smiled at him, "One fundraiser with my pals, and you'll never need another cent."

Aubrey grabbed her brother's hand and squeezed it; that had taken every bit of courage inside of him, to support Rachel's new man, and she was very proud of him.

* * *

Pondering what Lau had just said, the men looked to one another when they heard someone else step into the room, "Ha ha ha ha, hahaha, ha, ha, ha, oh, a-hee-hee, ha ha, oh, hee hee, hee ha, ahaha," slow laughter fell from his mouth and he grinned when he looked up, "And I thought my jokes were bad."

The mobster, more commonly known as Gambol glared up at the man in the purple suit. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't have my boy here pull your head off," he threatened the new man.

The Joker beamed, "How about a magic trick?"

Gambol motioned for one of his men to step forward as the Joker set up a pencil on the table. As they reached the Joker's range, he slammed their head down onto the pencil and grinned up at the rest of the mob, "Ta-da! It's…gone!"

He then sat down at the seat right atop the recently deceased body and adjusted his coat, "Oh, and by the way, the suit…it wasn't cheap. You ought to know…you bought it."

Gambol stood up furious and the Chechen, who was across from him, spoke up, "Sit. I want to hear…proposition."

Gambol finally sat down and the Joker smiled at the Russian mobster as if to thank him before he continued speaking, "Let's wind the clocks back a year…"


	4. Four

**Author's Note: Here's the revamped, longer, and more in depth version of chapter four. Enjoy everyone!**

_Disclaimer: I do not own the Dark Knight and I do not own any of the characters._

* * *

A buzzing noise alerted Aubrey that her phone was ringing and she pushed off her desk so that her rolling chair went backwards and picked her phone up off of the window sill, clicking the answer button, "Yeah, Bru?" She could practically hear Bruce smile on the other line. When she was little she had called him Bru or BruBru because she couldn't pronounce the last part of his name correctly.

"Bree," he greeted his sister calmly.

"You at _work_?" she teased her brother lightly. Bruce running the company was hardly work. He just sat in his office and looked pretty while Lucius made all the decisions for the two of them.

He chuckled, "Yes, I am, Aubrey. Listen, I'm going to need your giant brain for something. How soon can you get to Wayne Tower?"

"Umm," she looked around for her schedule, "Hold on." She got up and walked to her door and looked over at the receptionist's desk. She pointed at the girl's desk and mouthed the word _schedule_. The girl bounced up and Aubrey smiled, mouthing a thanks to her as she took it. She then groaned, "I have to go to a mandatory meeting on personal safety when dealing with the extreme patients, _but _after that I'm free!" She sang out the word but and sounded a lot happier at the end of the sentence.

"So that's like what? Two hours?"

"Hour and a half," she corrected him, "I stole your Lambo."

"_What_?"

"Okay, bye now, love you!" she smiled cheerfully as she hung up on her brother who was still yelling in the background.

She then turned to the receptionist, Jean, and smiled, "Just my brother, it's okay."

About exactly an hour and a half later, Bruce's phone rang. He answered it to his sister, "Oh, hey, Aubrey? Are you out?"

"You could say that," she answered coyly, "Go see Lucius, he just called me and he's really anxious for you to get down there. Don't wait for me, I'll be there as soon as I can."

Bruce pushed the button in the elevator that would bring him down to Lucius and as the doors slid shut he laughed, "What happened to being here in an hour and a half? Seeing as how you borrowed my Lamborghini…"

He heard her smile, "It was borrowing! We're family. It is _our_ money. What's yours is mine, sweetie."

Bruce rolled his eyes, stepping off of the elevator, "Whatever, Aubrey. I'll see you when you get here."

As he hung up, his eyes raised up to look at Lucius Fox who was standing with his younger sister. She was still dressed from work, Bruce noted as she wore a simple dress suit which consisted of a plain black knee length skirt and a matching black blazer over a pale blue and white striped collared shirt. She had the sleeves of the blazer and the shirt rolled up and her hair was down. She also had on flats which she usually kept in the car in case her heels began to hurt her feet.

"It's about time you got here," she smiled up at her brother, "I was beginning to get tired of waiting for you. No offense, Lucius," she turned to the older man, "I love your company and all, but Bruce is just _so_ slow."

Bruce looked at his sister with a gleam of amusement in his eyes as Lucius chuckled.

"So what's this all about? I could have had a hot date with some Mr. Bubble and Ben and Jerry," Aubrey put her hands on her hips and looked at her brother curiously. He chuckled, "Lucius and I are going to Hong Kong," he beamed.

"For…what?"

"Lau," Lucius responded, "He's in Hong Kong and he ran off with a lot of the mob's money. The cops want him in their custody, but -"

"The Chinese won't extradite one of their own," Aubrey finished. Lucius smiled at the girl's knowledge and nodded, "Exactly, Miss Wayne."

"Now," he spoke as they moved throughout the Applied Sciences division, "For high altitude jumps you need oxygen and stabilizers." He paused and turned to Bruce, "Jumping out of an airplane is pretty straight forward compared to your other requests." He pulled an oxygen tank and a few other things out of a cabinet, but continued moving forward. The siblings followed him.

Bruce smiled, "Well, what about getting back onto the plane?"

Lucius laughed, "I'd recommend getting a good travel agent."

"Without it landing," Bruce finished with an even bigger grin. Lucius smiled, "That's more like it, Mr. Wayne."

Aubrey sucked in her bottom lip, thinking for a moment, "Skyhook?" she suggested. Lucius nodded as Bruce looked lost. "What is that?"

"The CIA had a program back in the sixties, called," he gestured towards Aubrey, "Skyhook. It was for people who needed to get out of hot spots. Now," he stopped at a cabinet and pulled out a new bat suit with armored plating.

"Hardened Kevlar plates on a titanium-dipped fiber tri-weave for flexibility," Lucius explained as Bruce examined them. Both siblings nodded to Lucius' description. "You'll be lighter, faster, more agile," he continued explaining as Bruce examined his new gauntlets. He pushed something and blades fired out, spinning like throwing knives as they just missed his ear. Aubrey squeaked and Lucius gave him a look as he put them back. "Perhaps you should read the instructions first," he raised an eyebrow.

Bruce chuckled, "Sorry."

Lucius picked up the chest piece and began demonstrating how flexible the suit was, "Now, there's a trade off. The separation of the plates gives you more vulnerability to knives and gun shots," Aubrey frowned at this.

"Well, we wouldn't want things getting too easy, now, would we?" Bruce picked up his new suit and examined it, "How will it hold up against dogs?" he questioned, eyebrows raised. Aubrey rolled her eyes, remembering how she had to stitch him up the morning after he'd caught Jonathan.

Lucius looked at him, confused. "You talking Chihuahuas or Rotweilers?" Aubrey chuckled as Bruce smiled. Lucius smiled, "Should do fine against cats!"

The next day, Aubrey didn't go into work to help her brother with his plan. She sighed, examining the blue prints Alfred had set on the table.

"I found one," he exclaimed proudly. He and Aubrey had been looking all night. "In Arizona. Very nice man says it will take him a week to get it running. And he takes cash. What about a flight crew?"

"South Korean smugglers," Aubrey spoke up, "They run flights into Pyongyang, below the radar the whole way."

"Did anybody think of an alibi?" Bruce looked up after packing up his parachute.

Alfred smiled, looking completely proud of himself. Aubrey smiled at how adorable he looked. "Oh yes, sir. I did."

* * *

Aubrey yawned, flipping over in bed to answer her phone. Rachel's angry voice met her ears, "_What the fuck does your brother think he is doing?_"

Aubrey yawned again, "Rachel, what the Hell are you talking about?"

She growled, "He absconded with the entire ballet! He knew Harvey was taking me tonight!"

Aubrey sat up in bed and looked over at her alarm clock, _9:00 pm_. _I really need to get a social life outside of Bruce and Alfred,_ she sighed. "I'm sure he didn't know it was exactly tonight, Rachel."

"Aubrey, he probably looked it up. You know how your brother is."

"Rachel, please calm down about this, it's okay, believe me," a beep caused Aubrey to look at her phone, "Hold on, Rach, Jim's calling me. I'll talk to you later." She hit the button to switch lines and her voice instantly brightened up, "Hi, Jim!"

"Good evening, Bree. How're you tonight?"

"I'm fantastic Jim, how about yourself?"

He chuckled, "I guess I'm good. But," he paused, "Barbara's parents are in town and they wanted to take us out to dinner, but it's so last minute that we couldn't get the kids a sitter. We were wondering if you could…I mean, they're already asleep."

Aubrey laughed, "Of course, Jim!"

Despite the vast age difference between them, James Gordon was one of Aubrey's best friends. He had been the cop on duty the night her and Bruce's parents had been murdered and because Aubrey had been so young, he had checked in on her every other week. As she grew up, she began to see more and more of Jim at her demand and when she was a teenager she began buying him little presents for the holidays and for his birthdays. She'd invited him to all of her birthday parties as she'd grown up and she often watched the kids for free while he went out with Barbara.

"I'll be there in about twenty minutes, okay?" she glanced at the clock as she got out of bed and began to dress into casual clothes.

She pulled on a pair of dark denim skinny jeans as she said goodbye to Jim and a pair of knee high black suede wedged boots. She threw a long sleeved black and white striped shirt on and grabbed a black jacket. She combed her fingers through her hair, grabbed her purse, and left the penthouse. She didn't drive to Jim's house because he lived just outside of the Narrows and all of their cars were too nice to bring near the Narrows. She took a cab to his house and got out, beaming.

The Gordon home was one of her favorite places to be when she was younger and it still was. When she was very little, she used to pretend that James and Barbara were her parents, but it never worked out well because she would just end up crying. She pressed the buzzer once lightly so that she wouldn't wake up the kids.

Jim opened the door, dressed in his best suit, "Hi, Aubrey," he smiled at her. She wrapped her arms around him, "Hey, Jim."

She then saw Barbara who was dressed in a stunning dark blue dress. She beamed over at her, "Wow, Babs, looking _hot_!"

Barbara laughed waving Aubrey's comment off before hugging her. Aubrey then said hello to Barbara's parents and as the two couples left, she settled herself on the couch and began to watch a marathon of The Twilight Zone.

About halfway through her first episode, Aubrey had begun to doze off. Then, she heard a soft whimper from upstairs. She pushed herself off of the couch and moved towards Jimmy's room. She opened it slowly and saw him laying curled up in a little ball. She frowned and sat on the edge of his bed, "What's wrong, Jimmy?"

He looked up, "Aubrey?"

She smiled, pushing his hair back, "Hey, buddy. What's going on, huh?"

"Where are my parents? Where's my dad?"

"Hey, it's okay, they went out with your grams and gramps, okay? I'm here right now, don't worry about it."

* * *

"Boss, we've got a problem at Gordon's," a man in a clown mask stepped into the alleyway a few houses away from Gordon's home.

"What do you mean?" a man in a purple coat turned to face him. "Well, Chuckles?"

"You see, Joker," he wrung his hands together before rubbing the back of his neck, "Gordon's not home to leave the note for."

Joker raised both eyebrows up, though it went unnoticed, "What do you mean? Who's in there, then?"

Chuckles shrugged, "I don't know, boss, some girl."

"A _girl_?" the Joker snorted, "What? A babysitter?" Chuckles was silent and the Joker began to laugh.

"Well, it's not just any babysitter," another clown, known as Dopey spoke up. "That's Aubrey Wayne in there, boss."

_Wayne_, the Joker clicked his tongue on the roof of his mouth, _Where have I heard that before? Wayne..Tower? Wayne Corp?_ "Wayne?" he spoke up finally, "As in relation to Bruce?"

He knew about Bruce. He'd been intent on attending Bruce's party for Harvey since he'd heard about it.

Dopey nodded, "She's his younger sister."

"Why's she…babysitting…if she's so rich?" The Joker inquired.

"I dunno," Chuckles spoke up, "I think she's always been close to Gordon."

The Joker nodded, "Okay, so the note is off. But, we're not going home yet, boys. I want to see this Aubrey Wayne for myself."

* * *

"And what did Batman do then?" Jimmy beamed. He was eating this story up.

"He saved me," Aubrey smiled. "He swooped into the train and grabbed me before it plummeted to the ground." Jimmy was beaming now, "Oh, wow! Cool!"

A key in the lock downstairs caused both of them to turn to the door way. Aubrey gasped, "Oh man, it's your parents! Go back to sleep, Jim!" she kissed his forehead before ruffling his hair and shutting off his light, "Night, Jimmy."

"Night, Aubrey!"

Aubrey moved downstairs and met Barbara and Jim at the door as she passed by Barbara's parents who were going up to bed.

"The kids get up at all?" Barbara asked, taking off her coat.

"Jimmy did," Aubrey confessed, "I've been upstairs telling him stories for about a half an hour now, he should fall back asleep soon. I think Jim should go talk to him…he was really worried about his dad."

"Okay," Jim nodded, "Do you need a ride home, Aubrey?" He looked at her, concerned.

"Oh, no, I'll just take a cab, it's fine."

"Oh, you'll never get a cab this time at night," Barbara spoke up, touching the top of Aubrey's arm. "You could stay here, you know."

She smiled, "Oh, thank you, Barbara, but you know I don't like to impose. Especially when your parents are here. It's fine, if I don't get a cab, I'll take a bus and I'll walk the extra block. I'll text you when I get home, okay?"

Jim nodded and kissed her forehead, "Night, Aubrey."

Barbara nodded and also said her goodbye before Aubrey left, pulling on her jacket as she walked down the street. She shivered in the cold of the night, fingering the keychain that held her pepper spray on it. Sighing, she continued to move on down the street.

It was around three in the morning and Gotham was dead aside from people stumbling out of night clubs throwing up, criminals, and homeless men. Aubrey didn't really fear homeless people, most of them were generally sane now except for those still affected by Jonathan's toxin. Those ones, however, were up at Arkham. As for the drunken club guys, they were all downtown about now. There were no good clubs in the Narrows, which she had to walk through part of to get to the bus stop she needed. She found herself holding her breath as she crossed the street.

Feeling as if she'd heard something behind her, she turned to look, but there was nothing. However if she had looked closer into the dark of the alley, she would have seen a menacing clown watching her every move.

Standing at the bus stop, Aubrey read the schedule on the side. The next bus for near her apartment building wasn't due for about an hour. She read on, sighing, before noticing that one was available in fifteen minutes at the next bus stop. She continued walking on.

A shuffle behind her caused her to grip her keychain in her hands as she fumbled, getting the pepper spray out of it's holding case. She held the canister in one hand, still in her pocket, and she held her keys with the other, in the other pocket. She kept her head down and continued walking.

"Miss!" she heard behind her in a gruff voice. She nearly squeaked, but just walked faster. "Miss!"

She continued to move quickly, trying to get the four blocks left in front of her behind her as fast as possible.

A hand grabbed her arm roughly, "_Give me your money_," he growled out.

The Joker giggled to himself as Dopey attacked the girl without his mask on. He'd put a ski mask on instead to disguise that he even worked for the Joker. He wasn't going to hurt her, that wasn't in the cards right now…he just wanted to see what she'd do. And she didn't disappoint.

* * *

**Author's Note: I'm so glad I'm getting so many alerts added! But can you guys please let me know what you think? Is the revamped version better? I really hope so!**


	5. Five

**Author's Note: Here's the revamped version of Chapter Five. Enjoy everyone!**

_Disclaimer: I do not own the Dark Knight and I do not own any of the characters._

* * *

He had expected her to scream, to run, or to faint. He had _never_ expected her to fight. With a shrill shout, Aubrey Wayne had spun around and stabbed her attacker in the eye with her key. The Joker laughed as Dopey cried out, holding his head in pain as he hopped around. She then kicked him in the shin, causing him to fall down to his knees.

Aubrey's eyes widened as if she had just realized she'd stabbed him with the key and she glanced at the pepper spray which she held in her other hand. "Oops," he heard her whisper, "Wrong hand." She looked down at Dopey who was moaning on the ground, "Sorry, I picked the wrong hand," she grimaced, "Um, you can keep that key," she was backing up now, "It doesn't really go to anything anymore- ah!" she screamed as he backed into something and spun around, pepper spray held up in defense.

A low chuckle greeted her ears, "Aubrey Wayne? In the Narrows? What a bizarre twist is this? What are you doing here, sweet heart?"

Aubrey looked the man over, recognizing him from the television, "You're…Salvatore Maroni, right?" He nodded. She paused for a moment, "I was just going to the bus stop," she looked down, embarrassed.

He chuckled, "Do you want a ride? I've got my limo."

She paused and the Joker thought she was going to say that she didn't get into cars with strangers, but she surprised him, _again_.

"That's okay, Mr. Maroni," she spoke confidentially, "I need the exercise," she patted her stomach now, "Too many chocolate chip muffins." She giggled to finish her sentence, "It was nice to meet you, I'm sure I'll see you around some time."

He nodded, insulted, "Yeah. Tell Dent I say hi."

Aubrey's face turned to stone, "Yeah. I'll do that," she hissed out, continuing her walk. The Joker laughed loudly at the look on Sal's face and at Dopey who was crawling back into the alley. He sighed, raising his gun, "Let's put you out of your misery."

* * *

"You won't believe what happened this morning!"

Aubrey hit the start button on her coffee maker, "What happened Jimmy?"

James Gordon chuckled at how tired his friend sounded. "I woke up and Lau was on the steps of MCU with an address label attached to him!"

Aubrey giggled, "Oh, that Batman," she rolled her eyes. She then realized that if Lau was back in Gotham than her brother would be, too. "Oh, Jim I'm going to have to call you back, I think Bruce just got in. Keep me updated on Lau, you know I don't have any other form of entertainment other than your life and low class talk shows."

"It's so sad that I'm lumped in with those," he pretended to sound disgusted.

Aubrey giggled and Jim just laughed, "Okay, well you go check on Bruce and watch some daytime TV. I'll call you later, Aubrey."

"Bye, Jim," she closed her phone and nearly skipped across the penthouse to her brother's room. She began knocking on the door, but then, growing impatient, she threw the door open, "Bruce!" she screamed out.

He looked up at his sister, confused, "Aubrey? What's going on?"

"I knew you were home when Jim told me about Lau!" she jumped onto the bed so she was laying on her stomach next to her brother.

He chuckled, "Oh, so he got my present?"

Aubrey laughed, "Yes, and he's very amused. As am I."

Bruce shrugged, "I try."

Aubrey's phone went off again in the other room and she opened the text. It was from Harvey who had just simply instructed her to turn on the news. Sighing, Aubrey ran into Bruce's room, flopped back on the bed and turned on the news on his TV.

Bruce looked up as Mike Engel was reporting some more of his "GCN exclusive" reports. He rolled his eyes.

_"This morning, Gotham's Major Crime Units made two great discoveries. The first was of Mr. Lau, an accountant that had fled the country and was then miraculously recovered by the Gotham City Police Department. The second, was of a member of the mob found dead._" Aubrey gasped at this. _"Behind me is where the mobster most commonly known just as Gambol was found dead this morning. He had his face sliced open into a smile, much like a villain that is on the loose, running wild in Gotham's streets…the Joker. Two of Gambol's men were also found dead…murdered with a pool cue._"

Aubrey frowned, muting the television, "Why would he kill a mobster?"

"Money?" Bruce shrugged, snuggling into his pillow. "Go away, I want to sleep."

Aubrey rolled her eyes, smacking her brother on the shoulder as he pulled the covers up, "This is technically your job and you want to sleep?" He nodded and she groaned, turning the television off and heading to her room on the other side of the penthouse. She got changed into the first outfit she pulled out of the closet. It was a tan colored cotton tank dress with a matching long cardigan. The dress fell to the middle of her thighs and the sweater fell a few inches below it. She kept the sweater open and put a thin black leather belt around her waist to hold the outfit in place before pulling on a pair of black heels. She did a quick outline of her eyes in black and lengthened her lashes before grabbing her purse and heading out the door.

She was _bored_ to say the least. Being cooped up in a penthouse all day was really not all it was cracked up to be. She had no shifts at the asylum that day that she was aware of, she could be called in if anyone called out, so she figured she would go visit Jim at the Major Crimes Unit. She only assumed that Harvey and Rachel would be there as well so she stopped at Rachel's, and ironically Jim's, favorite coffee place and picked up what she knew they liked along with a coffee for Harvey and a vanilla chai tea for herself.

She adjusted her big sunglasses on her face and skipped up the stairs to MCU. She nearly passed right by Harvey who was leaving. She pouted, "Harv, where are you guys going? I got you coffee!"

Rachel beamed, hugging Aubrey and taking her coffee, "Oh, thank you, Aubrey you're such a doll!"

Harvey grinned, "Thanks, Bree, I owe you one! We have to get down to see the mayor though. See you later?"

Aubrey nodded, still pouting, "Is Jim at least still there?"

Harvey shrugged, "He should be. He was getting ready to go arrest Maroni when I saw him last. We'll talk to you later, okay? Bye, Aubrey!"

Aubrey, even still pouting, waltzed into the MCU as she pushed her sunglasses up on her head. She smiled over at a few of the officers and made her way to Jim's office, "Oh, _James!_"

He looked up from his desk, "Aubrey! What are you doing here?"

"I was so _bored_," she whined out, "I brought you coffee!"

He chuckled as he took the cup from her hands and thanked her, "Well, Aubrey, I was just finishing up a few things and then we're going to go get Maroni, so I'm sorry that I'm going to have to leave you when you just got here."  
"What's he done now?" she threw out the drink holder in Jim's trash can as she sipped her tea, "I just saw him last night you know, he's a pretty creepy guy."

"Well he's-" Jim looked up, "You saw him? Where?"

"Well when I left your house there were no cabs," she sat down with her legs tilted to the side and crossed at the ankles, "So I took the shortcut through the narrows and he was just walking around. But he said he had his limo," she shrugged. She left out the part about her being attacked. Jim would have a fit as it was about her being in the Narrows.

He looked at her, "I told you I would have given you a ride."

"I had my pepper spray," Aubrey shrugged, "And you know Bruce taught me how to throw a pretty mean right hook when we were little." Jim laughed and Aubrey smiled back up at him, glad he wasn't mad. He stood up and excused himself as he and his officers left to go get Maroni.

Aubrey groaned and answered her phone as it rang, tossing her empty cup into the trash as she left MCU and pulled her sunglasses back over her eyes, "Hello?"

"Aubrey, did you get a dress yet?"

She closed her eyes and raised one hand to her temple, massaging it, "No."

"Harvey's fundraiser is tomorrow night," Bruce continued talking to her. Aubrey walked down the street the entire time her brother was on the phone towards the boutique which she usually got her dresses at. "And I suppose you need-"

"Just a new tie, Aubrey," he was smiling, "I trust you to get me a nice one."

She sighed, walking into a tux shop and pressing the end button on her phone. She seriously thought about picking out a vibrant pink tie for her brother to wear or a soft lavender, but settled on a nice black one.

She turned to the owner and began to pay for it unaware that she was being watched from two racks of ties away.

"Is there any _real_ reason the boss has us following this Wayne girl?"

"I don't know," the new replacement Dopey shrugged, "He said she made him laugh."

The other man shrugged as well and as Aubrey Wayne left the shop, they each counted to ten before following her out. She went into a dress boutique and they sat at the coffee shop next door, waiting for her to exit.

"I mean, do you think he's going to kidnap her?" The new Dopey questioned, reading a paper.

Chuckles rolled his eyes, wondering why all of the Dopey's were always so stupid. _Guess it's just the name_, he shrugged inwardly. He checked his surroundings to make sure they looked normal. They were two guys in suits on the upper side of Gotham at a coffee shop. Dopey was reading a paper and he had his hands around an empty coffee cup that had been left there, acting as if it were his own. Feeling they were safe, he shrugged, "I don't know. The boss has never really found anyone that's made him laugh," he stretched his legs out.

"Because you know," Dopey looked over the top of the paper, looking much like a business man out to get coffee with a coworker, discussing the weather, "If he is, that's a _lot_ of money that we could get for her. I'm talking _billions_. More than the mob could ever give us."

Chuckles shrugged again, done with the subject as their target walked out of the dress shop. Within an instant, she was right in front of Chuckles. He was taken aback for a second before he noticed she held something out to him. He raised an eyebrow as he looked up at her.

She was holding a leather wallet to him, sunglasses pushed up atop her head again as she smiled warmly at him, "Is this yours?" she questioned, her voice sweet, "It was on the ground next to your feet."

He smiled kindly up at the younger woman, reaching for it. As he peeked inside, he noted that it was not his wallet, but due to the large sum of money in it, he claimed it. "Oh, thank you!" he grinned widely at her, "I'm so glad you returned it before someone else found it and just walked off."

She smiled, adjusting the dress bag over her arm as she pulled out her cell phone and silenced the call she was getting, "Well, I know how upset I would be if I lost mine."

He nodded, "I could imagine! I mean, you're Aubrey Wayne, aren't you?"

She blushed, nodding, "I am. What's your name?"

He grimaced inwardly, "Bob," he held out his hand, trying to think of a fake last name, "Bob Smith."

Dopey rolled his eyes behind his paper, turning the page. Aubrey smiled again, shaking his hand, "Very nice to meet you, Bob." As her phone began to ring again she scowled, excusing herself from the conversation. "Hello?"

"Aubrey, it's Jeremiah."

"Yes?"

"Can you fax over your evaluations when you get the chance? We really need to get this stuff done today."

She rolled her eyes, "I'll do it as soon as I get home, okay, Jer? Bye."

She smiled, "Sorry, work. Um, I've really got to go, but it was great meeting you. Maybe I'll see you around sometime."

Bob nodded, "Maybe. You have a nice day, Ms. Wayne."

The second that Bob got back to the Joker's hideout, he sought out his boss and told him all about it. By the end of the story the Joker was chuckling, "And she was _nice_?"

"She was, boss," Chuckles, who real name actually was Bob, nodded. "She held out the wallet and she was bein' real sweet. You can ask Dopey he was right there."

The Joker laughed even louder, amazed that someone raised like Aubrey Wayne wasn't stuck up.

* * *

"Here's your tie," Aubrey tossed the bag over to her brother and went to go hang up her dress. When she reentered the room he gave her a kiss on the cheek after she sat next to him, the opened tie box next to him, "Thanks, Bree."

She nodded back to him and stole a sip of his soda. "You want to go out to dinner tonight?" She looked over at him, "I'll trick Alfred into thinking that we're going shopping for the party…we should really take him out, he's been doing all of this for us."

Bruce nodded, "Sounds good, I'll get a reservation at Dorsia?"

Aubrey smiled, "_That_ sounds amazing, I'll go change into something nice and grab Alfred."

After convincing Alfred that they were just going out to go get a few last minute things that Rachel had requested, Aubrey drove him to the parking garage for downtown and led him into the restaurant, giggling. He noticed immediately where they were and sent her a warning look. Bruce was already at the table and after a few moments of a quiet fuss, Alfred finally sat down, taking a glass of the wine in front of him.

The Waynes each held up their glasses as they looked over at each other, "To family," Aubrey finally spoke up, "Because although we're not related by blood," she put her hand on top of Alfred's, "We're just as close."

Alfred smiled at the two children he had raised and readjusted his hand on top of Aubrey's, rubbing it lightly.

Bruce grinned, "To family!"

Their glasses clinked and the three drank their wine before picking up their menus. Aubrey smiled, happy to be out for a nice dinner with her cozy little family. However, she had no idea that the next night, everything would change. Forever.

**

* * *

Author's Note: I hope that it's okay that the Joker hasn't been in it that much, but in the next chapter it is the party scene. Which means a lot of Joker. And a lot of Joker and Aubrey. Also, I would like to mention that I definitely referenced American Psycho in this when I said Bruce would get a reservation at Dorsia. I would just like to add that I don't own Dorsia, 'nor do I own anything that has to do with American Psycho. Thanks for reading, everyone!**


	6. Six

**Author's Note: Here's the revamped version of Chapter Six. The Party Sceneee! Enjoy everyone!**

_Disclaimer: I do not own the Dark Knight and I do not own any of the characters._

* * *

Aubrey scratched the tip of her nose as she waited for the commercials to end and her show to start up again. She sighed, looking over at the clock. She really needed to get a hobby.

"Why don't you ever go out with your friends?" Bruce mumbled, climbing onto the couch with his sister.

"Why don't you?" she looked at him insulted.

"Because my only friends are you and Rachel," he pointed out. She gave him a look as if to say that stood true for her too, and he nodded, "I get it."

"Well, I'm going to go do my hair," she shrugged, "I guess."

Bruce laughed, trying to trip his sister as she walked past. She turned and glared at him playfully, "You're the worst!" He just laughed in response as she went off to her room.

After an hour and a half, all of Aubrey's hair was curled and piled on top of her head elegantly, held in place with little bobby pins which had pearls on the end of them. She had put in pearl earrings and draped pearls around her neck as well. Her dress, which was a deep red, was strapless and fitted perfectly at the top of her body, flowing down after her hips. She had red heels set aside to put on later. She had done her makeup very casually, but nice. She had done a smoky eye look and had applied some red lipstick. She paced around the penthouse, helping Alfred keep things in check.

He smiled down at the girl, "You look beautiful, Miss Aubrey."

"Oh, Alfred," she waved her hand at him, "You old charmer, you."

Bruce chuckled, fixing his tie as a GCN exclusive flashed on screen. Aubrey stepped forward to stand next to her brother, curious.

There was a man, dressed up as the Batman hanging off the side of a building and as the camera continued to roll, it was clear that they were lowering him down. A caption at the bottom of the screen read _Batman Dead?_

Aubrey clutched her brother's arm with a straight face on. He stood perfectly still as well, imagining what she would have been like had he not been home when this had aired.

Mike Engel's voice spoke over the footage, "Police released video footage found concealed on the body. Sensitive viewers be aware: the following footage is disturbing."

The footage changed to a man who was blindfolded and wearing a makeshift Batman costume. The visible parts of his face beneath his homemade cowl were bruised and bloody and with the poor quality of the camera used to film, all you could tell is that the room was brightly lit.

A voice off screen spoke, _"Tell them your name." _The man responded with Brian Douglas and the voice giggled, "_Are you the real Batman?_"

_"No!"_

_ "No? __**Then why do you dress up like him?**__" _His voice turned dark, causing Aubrey to dig her nails into her brother's shirt a bit as she watched him rip the man's mask off and dangle it above his head, giggling.

_ "He's a symbol," _Brian spoke up. Aubrey could feel her heart breaking at the man's courage, "_That we don't have to be afraid of scum like you…"_

_ "Oh, but you do, Brian. You really do! You think the Batman's helped Gotham?"_ Brian nodded silently, looking away. _"Look at me!"_ Brian looked down again and the Joker's voice turned dark, causing Aubrey to inhale sharply, _"LOOK AT ME!"_

Brian looked up at the camera just before it swung to view the face of the Joker. The filming was shaky as he was holding the camera himself.

_"This is how __**crazy**__Batman's made Gotham! You want _order_ in Gotham? So…" _he leaned into the camera, _"Batman must take _off_ his mask, and turn himself i__**n**__. Oh! And every day he doesn't…people will _die_. Starting tonigh__**t**__. I'm a man of my _**word.**_"_

The tape cut to static. Bruce turned to Alfred, silent, before turning to Aubrey who was looking up at him with wide eyes. He gave her a quick hug before walking off somewhere else in the penthouse.

* * *

"Now, I've seen it all," Rachel Dawes grinned up at her boyfriend, "Harvey Dent, scourge of the underworld, scared stiff by the trust fund brigade," she was giggling now. She spotted someone off on the other side of the room and darted off, leaving him alone.

"Rachel!" he tried to call out, but she was already gone.

"Harvey!" a voice cried out to him. He felt two arms wrap around one of his own and he looked to his side, "Aubrey!" he cried out, relieved. He gave her a quick hug and a kiss on the cheek.

"Rachel left you all alone?" she laughed, "Oh, look at you, you look so handsome," she winked.

He chuckled, "You look beautiful, Bree. How do you stand these things?" he whispered quietly.

Alfred walked up and offered champagne to the two, "Liquid courage, Mr. Dent?" Harvey whispered a thanks and picked up a glass. He watched as Aubrey downed one and then began sipping on another.

"I get through them like this," she pointed at the glass after her looked at her incredulously.

A loud roar began to drown out any conversation in the room and everyone looked around, confused. Aubrey noticed as a helicopter began to descend onto the helipad outside of the penthouse. She smacked herself in the forehead as she noticed her brother step out with three supermodels linked around him.

"He's _really_ adopted," she told Harvey, downing a third drink.

Bruce and his dates came into the penthouse, all beaming. Bruce began his obnoxious, and rehearsed, entrance speech. "Sorry, I'm late. Glad you all got started without me! Now, where's Rachel?" Rachel cringed at the mention of her own name, but Bruce found her anyways, "Ah, Rachel Dawes… my oldest friend."

He walked towards her, still smiling, "When she told me she was dating Harvey Dent, I had only one think to say to her…the guy from those God awful campaign ads?"

The crowd in the room began to laugh as Harvey shifted in his spot, embarrassed. He looked over towards Aubrey to see her already on drink four.

"_I believe in Harvey Dent_," Bruce was still mocking him, "Nice slogan, Harv."

"Um," Aubrey stepped forward from next to Harvey, "_I_ came up with that slogan, actually, Bruce."

Bruce chuckled, "Oh, well, sorry Aubrey. Anyways, Harvey certainly caught Rachel's attention. But, after awhile I started paying attention to Harvey and all that he's been doing as our new D.A., and you know what? _ I _ believe in Harvey Dent. I believe that on his watch, Gotham can feel a little safer…a little more optimistic. So here's to Harvey Dent…to the face of Gotham's bright future!"

Dent smiled, accepting the toast that Bruce just gave him and Aubrey rubbed the top of his shoulder, smiling over at her brother as everyone in the crowd cheered out.

Aubrey noticed as Rachel and her brother slinked off to the balcony and she stayed put with Harvey, keeping him safe from Gotham's elite. After a few moments Harvey got past her and made his way to the balcony. Aubrey scrunched her face up, annoyed that she had to think of something new to do when Alfred came up next to her. He held her phone out to her and winked. "I thought you'd like to see this real quick, Miss Wayne, it's been going off for the past ten minutes."

Aubrey's eyes widened at the sight of her smart phone and she unlocked it, beaming. There were about ten texts from Jim. She opened them and they were almost all the same. The first three were about the Joker's threats towards Harvey, Commissioner Loeb, and Judge Surrillo. The next few were telling her to watch over Harvey and the last few were asking her if she was alright. Aubrey texted back quickly _Everything's fine here_ and slipped her phone back to Alfred.

Though the upper class of Gotham were normally glued to their cell phones, it was frowned upon to be on them at social events and they were not really supposed to be brought to them. Alfred slinked off and as Aubrey had another glass of champagne that Alfred had given her, she spit it back into the glass. _Ginger ale_, she rolled her eyes, dropping it off on a waiter's tray and casually picking up a fresh glass.

Looking around, she saw Bruce put Harvey in a sleeper hold and as he passed out, drag him into a closet which he shut off with a piece of metal between the handle bars. Rachel was freaking out and as she found Aubrey she rushed over to her, "Bree! Did you just see that?"

Aubrey nodded offhandedly, "I thought I had imagined it actually. What's going on?" she picked her phone up off of Alfred's tray again as he walked past, towards the door. She opened her phone and saw a new message. _From: Jim Gordon. Message: Judge Surrillo and Commissioner Loeb are dead. _

Aubrey gasped, but before she could say anything to Rachel, a gun shot rang out into the air and a voice filled her ears. A voice that she'd only ever heard before on TV. "Good evenin_g_. We are…tonight's…_entertainment_!" He made his way over towards the hourdourve trays and nibbled on a piece of shrimp, before putting the toothpick back on the tray. He chewed, moving away.

Aubrey's first instinct was to throw her phone away from her. She knew that in any situation it was best to get rid of your phone before you were threatened. However, halfway through tossing it behind her casually, she gripped onto it and shoved it down the top of her dress, keeping it in her bra. Rachel looked at her incredulously and Aubrey just shrugged.

The Joker finished chewing, "I only have one question for you! Where _is_ Harvey _Dent_?" He looked up at the ceiling for a moment, waiting, before turning to face the crowd of party guests. Aubrey frowned slightly, wondering why all of her brother's parties ended in some type of disaster.

The Joker pointed his shot gun at a row of guests before taking a glass of champagne right out of a guest's hands. He spilt most of the drink out, but drank the remaining inch left in the glass before putting it back down on the table.

Aubrey's eyes followed every move that he made as she moved in front of Rachel slightly, hiding her. Her eyes narrowed slightly as she watched him. The man was almost…elegant in a way. She seemed puzzled by her own thoughts, but it was true. He moved with such a grace that she had only seen the mob have before. She furrowed her eyebrows, confused. The man was crazy, but held himself together incredibly well and with such…_style._

He began walking through the crowd some more, tapping people on their faces, "Do you know where **Harvey **is?" he questioned, "Do you know where he is?"

He grabbed hold of a man's face and turned it to face him, "Do you know where _**Harvey **_is? I need to talk to him. About something…_little_." He turned the man's head away, _"No._"

He continued his walk through. He took an appetizer off an elderly man's plate and continued speaking as he stuffed his face, "You _know_, I'll settle for his loved ones."

"We're not intimidated by thugs," the man spoke up.

Aubrey nearly smacked herself in the face. She saw the Joker's face become puzzled before noticing almost a…spark in his eye. "You _know_," he turned his face away, dropping the shot gun on the table. He smiled, "You remind me of my **father**."

_Oh no_, Aubrey thought out just as the Joker grabbed the man's face and stuck the blade of a knife, that had come out of seemingly nowhere, into the man's mouth. "I always _**hated**_ my father!"

"Alright, stop!" Rachel spoke up from where she was still halfway behind Aubrey.

The Joker removed his hand from near the man's mouth, but maintained his grip on his face. He turned his head, searching the crowd slightly for who had spoken up.

Aubrey looked up at the ceiling, trying to count the decorative accents. She was chewing on the inside of her lip_ begging_ that Rachel would stay silent. Maybe someone else would claim that they'd spoken up. She looked back around at the crowd and saw that half of the guests looked as if they had shit their pants. She closed her eyes, _damn._

Rachel poked her head out from behind Aubrey looking defiant. The Joker finally let go of the man's face and turned his entire body in their direction. Aubrey's eyes widened slightly, but not noticeably as Rachel stepped in front of her a bit. Aubrey reached out for the sleeve of Rachel's dress and tried to grab her, but she was to far. She squeezed her eyes shut, _damn it!_

"Well, _hello beautifu__**l**_," the Joker spoke up as he moved forward, slicking his hair back with the hand that held the knife as he licked the side of his mouth. "You must be Harvey's _squeeze_," he lifted up on the tips of his toes as he said squeeze, and continued moving towards them. "And you _are_ **beautiful**."

Rachel had crossed her arms as Aubrey played out different scenarios in her head. What Rachel was going to do, what the Joker was going to do…what Bruce would do to _her_ if she let anything happen to Rachel. Her eyes widened, almost bulging out of her skull at the thought and began to think of a new scenario. What _she_ could do to prevent anything.

He circled around Rachel as one of his thugs pulled Aubrey back a bit so that she wasn't in their boss's way. As he moved closer to her, Rachel jerked nervously and he stood in front of her again. "Oh, you look ne_r_vous. Is it the sc_ar_s?" he gestured towards his mouth with his knife. "You wanna know how I got them?" he smiled, grabbing the back of Rachel's head to pull her closer, "Look at me. See, I had a wife who was _beautiful_, like _you_. Who tells me I wo**rr**y too much. Tells me, I need to _smile _more. Who gambles and gets in deep with the sharks. One day they carve her face, and we've got no money for surgeries. She can't take it," he pressed the knife to her cheek and Aubrey let out a small noise. The Joker looked out of the corner of his eye for a moment, trying to find the source. He couldn't see Aubrey from the angle he was at, so he continued, "I just want to see her smile ag_a_in. I just want her to know that I don't _care_ about the scars! So I put a _**razor**_ in my mouth and do _this_ to myself," he tilted his head back and licked his scars a bit. "And you know what?" he began laughing, "She can't stand the _sight_ of me! She _**leaves**_. See, now I see the funny side. Now, I'm always smiling!" he beamed.

Aubrey watched him the entire time he spoke. She had spent most of her life with liars (the Gotham elite), criminals (visiting Jim at jail), and lunatics (up at the asylum) to know a few things. The Joker was brilliant. He was cunning and did a wonderful job frightening everyone. But, he was a liar. The way he had spoken clued Aubrey in to that however he _had_ gotten his scars, that wasn't it. But, he seemed pretty truthful about the wife. Aubrey was most shocked however when she realized that the Joker was most definitely not insane.

Rachel kicked the Joker in the shin, keeping a straight face. He limped backwards, laughing, "You've gotb a little fight in you, I like that!" He moved towards her with the knife and when Aubrey saw no one else moving, she stepped forward and grabbed her friend by the first thing she could - her hair, and yanked her backwards. Rachel screamed out, grabbing the back of her head as she turned to face Aubrey. "Ow!" she cried out. Aubrey shrugged, raising her eyebrows up as if to say 'Oh well'.

The Joker chuckled, playing with his knife in his hands as he studied her, "And _you_ must be _Aubrey Way__**ne**__._"

Aubrey looked up at him confused before realizing that she had acted and brought this upon herself. She composed herself within a matter of seconds to look strong. "Must I?"

He raised his eyebrows up, amazed. This woman was _challenging_ him? Usually a person challenging him would make him feel angry, but this was different. This had surprised him…_amused_ him. A wealthy, high class Gothamite standing up to _him_? He chuckled lowly, stepping towards her, now.

"We_**ll**_," he clicked his tongue, waiting. "A_**r**_e you?"

Aubrey's arms were at her side, not crossed like Rachel's. She left her guard open, but she was tense in case she needed to move quickly.

He looked at her as if to say _I'm waiting_ and she paused for another moment before answering, "Yes, I am."

He smiled wider, "_Well__**ll**__,_" he stepped closer, "Aren't we b_**ra**_**ve**-uh?" He was right in front of her now, looking down at her face. She looked up at him and noticed that he was about a head and a half taller than she was.

"I've been told I possess that quality."

He chuckled again and made a move to step forward before he realized he was almost on top of her already. He paused for a moment, "It's a good quality to have-uh, but quite often it comes with a few others…_naivity, _um, acting without assessing the s**it**ua_tion…_" he looked down at her and she noticed his shoulder twitch. As it did, she leaped backwards just as his knife had been brought up - right to where her face had been.

His eyes widened. He wasn't going to stab her or anything…not yet, at least. He was just going to frighten her. The leap had surprised him, but what surprised him more was that little smirk she wore on her face.

"You strike me as someone who would be really…_feisty_," he stared at her, finally lowering his hand and lowering his guard. Aubrey smirked wider as she saw a flash of black out of the corner of her eye. _Finally._

"_Then you're gonna love me_."


	7. Seven

**Author's Note: Here's the revamped version of Chapter Seven. Enjoy everyone! Snow days force me to be productive, hahah.**

_Disclaimer: I do not own the Dark Knight and I do not own any of the characters._

* * *

Rachel tugged Aubrey backwards by the elbow and pulled her to her as the Batman began to fight the Joker. Aubrey leaned in and whispered to her, "Sorry I pulled your hair."

"Well thank you for pulling me away. Even if you _did_ pull out some of my hair."

Aubrey winced, looking back towards the fight.

Batman hurled the Joker towards another side of the room and as one of the Joker's henchmen attacked him, the Joker gave another a hand signal and he moved towards Aubrey's side. Aubrey, distracted, looked over at the man curiously before she noticed it was a fake out and the Joker had Rachel once more and this time he held a gun to her head.

"_Drop the gun_," Batman growled out. Aubrey was puzzled for a moment. Had Bruce taken up smoking?  
"Sure," the Joker's voice was high pitched with excitement, "And you just take off your mask and show us all _who_ you are."

Rachel shook her head no and Aubrey stared, eyes wide. The Joker raised his shotgun behind his head and blew the window out. Rachel cried out at the same time Aubrey did.

Aubrey's heart was racing as Bruce told the Joker to let her go.

"Very _poor_ choice of words," he began laughing hysterically.

"No!" Aubrey screamed out, leaping at the same time Batman did to save Rachel. Aubrey felt the cool rush of air from the open window before feeling a pain in her abdomen. She felt as if the wind had been knocked out of her and she realized that she never made it out the window, but heard Rachel screaming in the back of her head. She opened her eyes and saw Batman sliding down the roof after her.

_Why had he made it?_ she wondered. She looked down and noticed arms around her waist. Arms that were covered by a purple suit. Aubrey groaned inwardly, noting that the Joker had grabbed her just as she'd almost been out the window.

The other thing she noticed when she looked down, was that there was absolutely no floor beneath her feet. Aubrey squeaked and shut her eyes.

"Not so uh, _**brave**_ now…are you?" he whispered in her ears. He was thrilled. He'd found something to threaten the girl with. _Heights_. "Now uh, you don't want to fall…do you?"

She heard a crash below and opened one eye. Peering down she noticed that Bruce had landed on a car with Rachel on top of him. She saw them roll off and stand up.

Aubrey calmed down after a moment. She spoke firmly, "No."

"Do you want me to drop you?"

She closed her eyes and spoke calmly again, "No."

"_You want me to save your life?_" he whispered in her ear. She cringed at the hot breath on the side of her face along with the scent of his breath.

She took a deep breath and mustered up all the courage that she could to speak, "_Yes._"

His low chuckle filled her ears and she felt him move backwards, lifting her up so that he could move her with him. She felt her feet on the ground and lifted her head backwards, connecting it with his jaw at the same time she twisted one of his arms off of her, and kicked backwards into his shin. He laughed, falling away from her as she spun around and moved to the side, away from the open window.

"Is that _any_ way to thank me? I just saved your life!" he chuckled, his voice high pitched.

She glared at him, seething, "No, you just saved me from your own threat."

He giggled now, "Oh-ho-ho-ho! Look at you," he stepped towards her, "Now, I would love to stand here and argue with you all day, _but!_ You are really underestimating how much time I have to waste on you."

He grabbed her around the waist and threw her over his shoulder. She cried out at the impact of his shoulder into her stomach before her eyes bulged out of their sockets. "What are you doing?" she asked him, keeping her voice at a calm level.

He giggled, "What? You can't be telling me that with all the knowledge in your little noggin, you can't tell what I'm doing."

"You're…taking…me?" she lifted her head up off of his back, eyebrows furrowed together. The way she had spoken made him giggle and as she saw the elevator floor beneath the Joker's feet, she slammed her face into his back, groaning.

"_**What**_?" he faked sounding hurt, "You don't w_a_nt to go home with me? And I thought you _liked _bad boys. What with Jonathan Crane and all."

Aubrey screeched, flailing her limbs out to try and twist herself off of him. He was unprepared for this movement and let out a yelp as she smacked him in the back of the head and managed to twist out of his grip. She sat on the floor of the elevator, seething.

The Joker was completely taken aback at this. He looked at her, confused for a moment before putting a finger up and opening his mouth to speak. After nothing came out, he closed his mouth and let his hand fall to his side. What had just happened?

The petite brunette stood up in the corner where she had fallen, glaring at the man with makeup all over his face, "I don't care about anything that comes out of that mouth," she hissed out, "But if you_ ever_ say anything about Jonathan Crane _ever_ again, I will give you more scars to talk about. _**Especially **_if you're insinuating that there was something between he and I."

The Joker finally beamed, letting out a noise of delight, "Oh, I knew you were going to be **fun**," he grabbed her by the hair and yanked her up and out of the elevator, nearly dragging her behind him as he made his way to the van waiting for him outside. He threw her inside, almost casually. She bit her tongue to keep from shouting out as the back of her head hit the cool metal of the van's interior wall. She heard him climb up inside the van as well and as he began to talk, her head began to swim. She tried to shake off the aching pain in the back of her skull, but it just caused it to hurt more. When she blinked, she saw spots, so she let out a deep breath and closed her eyes, enjoying the darkness of her eyelids. Soon, all she saw was darkness.

* * *

"Oh _good_," a nasally voice filled her ears as she began to come to. A snicker followed the statement. Her eyes opened and tried to adjust to the light, "And here I thought you were broken for a minute."

The florescent lights above them were crackling -no, that wasn't the right word…they were _cackling_, laughing at her as they flickered dangerously. She sat up in her spot on the floor and rubbed her temple, "What a shame that would have been."

He giggled, amused, "Oh, but it would be! You'd never fetch.._**uh**_ full value price if you were _**uh**_ _broke__**n**_."

"So that's what this is all about?" she asked, slightly confused as she adjusted her position on the floor to be more comfortable, "Ransom?"

"_Uhh, _**no,**" he almost guffawed at her. "You're worth much more than _money_."

"So what then?" she asked, eyebrows furrowed together in the middle of her forehead, "What is taking me going to do exactly?"

He giggled, "You know I'm surprised with you, Aubrey Wayne. Even with your smarts and your wealth. You picked out the cream of the crop…so to say, to befriend only the good in Gotham. Especially with all of the corruption in this city. I mean there was Jonathan Crane…but we all have **uh** _bad days_." He noticed a flash of anger in her eyes as he mentioned Crane and smirked a bit wider. "But the only good cop this city has? The D.A and his girlfriend? You've got quite the social life, Ms. Wayne."

"This is about Harvey," she whispered, connecting the dots in her mind.

The Joker shrugged, "Uh, yes and no. This is about _chaos_."

"_Chaos_?" she asked incredulously, "You honestly believe that by taking me, you're going to cause chaos in Gotham?"

He nodded, "Uh, _yeah_." She nodded as well, not believing him. He could tell that -and he hated that, so he continued speaking, "See, by taking you -I'm upsetting the _established order,_" he used finger quotes as he said those two words, "No one would ever expect me to take you - out of everything they would never expect it to be _you!_ Because you don't have anything to do with anyone, but at the same time you do! You link _all of them_ together, but you're just so _random!_ Imagine Rachel Dawes…angry and uncensored, your brother - willing to throw money at anybody just to have you back! Harvey Dent's campaign face will fall and Jim Gordon can't come and save you due to conflict of **uh**_** personal interest**_."

Aubrey nodded again, not speaking as she though the situation over. The Joker did the same thing. She wasn't afraid of him, not yet at least. She remained silent for a moment longer before speaking up. "Okay."

He blinked. _Okay? Okay? _After all of that, all she had to say to him was _okay_? He narrowed his eyes, "What? Do you think the Bat will come and save you? Because you're no Ms. Dawes, dear."

_No, but I am Ms. __**Wayne**_, she thought. "Yes."

"Even if he has to take off his mask?" he teased her.

She knew Bruce would take off his mask for her, but she couldn't let the Joker know that. He would wonder why she believed that and he might be able to piece together who was Batman. She shook her head, "Then no, I do not. But it's okay. Because with all of the things you said I'll cause, all of the _chaos_," he smiled at the word coming from her lips, "It makes me highly indispensable."

He was in shock as the last part of her sentence hit him. The smirk, still in place from her saying the word chaos, fell immediately. None of his hostages (if you could call them that…they never lasted very long) had ever even listened to what he said; they were always too scared. But she was different. She hadn't flinched at him, or shook in fear. She hadn't even cried - yet.

"You continue to surprise me, Ms. Wayne."

"I tend to do that," she smirked.


	8. Eight

**Author's Note:** Thank you to everyone who's been reading and reviewing, you guys are the best! Xoxo I really hope you enjoy this chapter. Let me know :)

_Disclaimer_ I do not own the Dark Knight or any of it's characters.

* * *

"For the next few days, this basement will be your home, Ms. Wayne. I mean, if you're good -and I mean _very_ good, you might be able to come upstairs," he smacked his lips together. She held her disgust in as he continued, "Is there anything that I can get for you?"

She snorted, "So you're playing host now?"

He leaned down quickly and grabbed the back of her head, sneering, "I can play _nice _or I can play **uh **rough - and if I play **rough**, you won't ever want to play at all with me." She merely nodded and he released his grip on her hair, standing back up and straightening his suit out. "So **uh**, can I get you anything?"

She thought for a moment, ignoring that the back of her head felt as if it were on fire, before speaking up, "Water." Now that she had thought about it, she was incredibly thirsty. "And a toothbrush, toothpaste…all that stuff. And pajamas? Preferably sweatpants and a shirt."

He just nodded and left the room. She found it odd how casual he was being, but she suspected that she wasn't what he had expected. And she knew she had been right about being highly indispensable. If he had wanted to take her to cause chaos, he couldn't kill her. Not if he expected Bruce to throw money at the mob -which is, what he did expect.

She stood up from her spot on the floor and stretched her hands above her head before putting them on her lower back and leaning backwards, cracking it. She sighed, moving around the basement. The floor was cement, so she kept her shoes on. She knew it would be cold from the temperature of the air. The walls were cement as well, and plain. There was a blood stain on one of them across the room and she shivered. There was no furniture down here except for a coffee table in the corner which also looked as if it were stained with blood. She was supposed to sleep on the floor, she assumed and frowned, looking at it. Was this his plan? To drive her mad by taking away all of the frills in her life? She rolled her eyes and sat on the wooden stairs that he had gone up earlier.

After some time passed, she heard the door open. Had it even been locked? She stood up and turned around to see a man in a clown mask make his way down the stairs. He didn't speak, he just held out a large brown paper bag that had the top folded down and was placed atop a pile of clothes.

She smiled softly, "Thank you."

With a single nod, the clown went upstairs and shut the door. She didn't hear him lock it. She raised an eyebrow curiously, but sat back down on the stairs and turned to her bag of goodies.

She saw that the clothes she had been given were a pair of dark purple, near black, sweatpants. She slid them on under her dress after inspecting them to make sure that they were clean. They were loose on her and she realized that they were men's -probably the Joker's. Shuddering, she took off her dress and pulled on the shirt, which was a dark forest green color. She assumed that this too was the Joker's. In the bag she found a pair of plain white socks and so she took her heels off and pulled them on as well. She sighed at the huge mess of clothes she was in.

She pulled the drawstring of the sweatpants as far as it would go before tying it. When it still slipped down her waist, she rolled the top down a few times, which also helped with the length. She then turned to the shirt in which she could another person in. She pulled all of the things holding her hair up and she was left with about eight bobby pins and two hair ties. She used one of the hair ties to tie the back of the shirt in a knot, and make it a bit more snug. Using the other hair tie, she put her hair up in a curly pony tail.

Aubrey then dug around in the rest of the bag, snatching a water out and drinking it. He'd also given her a toothbrush, toothpaste, and mouth wash. She set the bag aside, not needing that yet. She stared up towards the door at the top of the stairs and pondered, _Was it locked?_

Deciding to take her chances, Aubrey Wayne made her way up to the top of the stairs and placed her hand on the knob. Closing her eyes, she turned it, amazed when it actually moved, and pushed the door open. She peered out into the room, noticing that it was a kitchen. No one was even guarding the door. She slipped into the kitchen and looked around, remembering where things were.

She then moved into the next room, noting that it was a makeshift living room. Were they in a warehouse? She wondered, continuing her journey. She found a staircase and began to go up it. The noise of someone's throat being cleared stopped her in her tracks. "_What are you doing?_" he asked, curiously.

She shrugged, turning to face him, "Exploring."

"I thought I told you the _basement _was your home," he glared at her.

"It's cold in there," she mumbled, her hand picking at the railing of the staircase. "Plus you didn't take much measure to ensure I would stay down there, did you?"

"I wanted to see what you'd do," he shrugged, "I personally thought that you would run."

"I'm assuming that I'm in the Narrows or down by the docks which aren't too far from the Narrows. And if that's the case, I have no idea how to get home from here, so me running would be pointless and tiresome," she pointed out. "So, if you wanted me to try and escape so that you could rough me up a little and try and scare me, I'm sorry to disappoint you. I'm a bit brighter than you're giving me credit for."

He growled at her, much like a dog, "Usually I like when girls are smart, but you're just getting on my _nerves_."

She rolled her eyes, "So do I get a grand tour or am I my own tour guide?" He was silent. "O_kay_," she sang out, making her way up the stairs.

The Joker stared up the stairs after she'd gone up. What was wrong with this girl? She wasn't anywhere near terrified of him, even after everything he'd done so far. He followed the girl up the stairs to make sure she didn't snoop -too much. He could take her with him later when he went out. Maybe if he had actually killed someone in front of her, she wouldn't be acting like this.

Aubrey had found her way into his office, he noted. He grabbed her and spun her around, enraged, "You do _not _come in here. **Uh**, I don't like people in here. _Got it_?" She nodded and he threw her away from him, "What did you see in here?"

"Who's Richard Dent?" she spoke up, looking up at him from the corner of her eye. He beamed, "You want to go see him tomorrow?"

* * *

The next day, Bruce Wayne was in the bunker with Alfred. "Targeting me won't get their money back," Bruce sighed, "I knew the mob wouldn't go down without a fight, but this is different. They've crossed a line. They've crossed _multiple_ lines -ones that they didn't even know about. He's taken Aubrey and it's all my fault."

"You crossed the line first, sir," Alfred reminded him. You've hammered them, squeezed them to the point of desperation. And in their desperation they've turned to a man that they don't fully understand. And it's not your fault that he took Miss Aubrey. No one would have guessed that he was going to."

Bruce sighed, moving away from the computer screens, "Criminals aren't complicated, Alfred. We just have to figure out what he's after. And we have to figure out a way to get Aubrey back."

"Perhaps Master Wayne this is a man that you yourself don't fully understand either. And as for Miss Aubrey, she's very bright. I'm sure that she'll be able to keep herself strong through all of this." Alfred sighed at the silence that followed after and looked at Bruce, "Besides, she might even get on their nerves enough for them to let her go," he winked. Bruce chuckled lightly.

* * *

Aubrey felt herself being dragged out of the car as she woke up. It had taken about forty minutes to get to wherever this Richard Dent was and at some point, probably about halfway there, she'd fallen asleep. The Joker smacked her in the back of the head to wake up and she reached back, rubbing the spot. He pulled her by the wrist into an apartment that had already been broken into and saw a man standing there with a gun while two men coward near the couch.

The Joker smiled, taking the gun from him, "Thanks, Melvin." He then turned to Aubrey, "Usually I don't like to use guns…they're too quick. But, from what we have to do here tonight, it's going to save us a lot of time."

He shot one of the men clear through the heart. The man fell down instantly as the other one jumped away, shouting. The Joker fired -and missed- as the man jumped away. The bullet went through the wall, into the brick. The man jumped towards the other side of the room and as the next bullet went through _his_ heart, Aubrey shrieked as she got blood on her.

The Joker and Melvin White moved one of the bodies to the kitchen table as the two clowns, Chuckles and Dopey, moved the other man to sit across from him. The Joker glanced over at Aubrey who had blood splattered upon her face, although she did not move from her spot. He smirked and continued his task.

She watched as they arranged a bunch of playing cards around the table and put them in the dead men's hands. They looked as if they had died playing poker, Aubrey frowned. She was leaning against the window of the apartment and placed both hands on it, pressing hard to leave noticeable finger prints.

The Joker called her over to him and she stepped over, cautiously. She wanted to scrub the blood off of her face as she felt it begin to dry. She shivered, stopping in front of him.

It was then that Aubrey noticed all of the cards on the table and in the men's hands were Joker cards.

"I want you to watch this," he mumbled as he put a newspaper under a glass. Aubrey noticed that they had also pinned the men's driver's licenses to them. _Patrick Harvey_ was on her left and _Richard Dent_ was on her right. _Harvey, Dent_, she frowned. She nearly jumped back as the Joker whipped out a knife and began carving the two men's faces into grins similar to his own. She felt her eyes widen and water as the noise of skin being separated filled the room. After he finished with Patrick Harvey, he moved onto Richard Dent. The very noise alone made all of the hair on arms and neck stand up on end and nauseated her to the core.

She then ran outside as he moved to the other side of the man's face and threw up over the railing of the balcony. The Joker followed her soon after, rolling his eyes as he pulled her up and dragged her away, "What, _Aubrey_, scared now?"

It was the first time he'd said her first name since he'd captured her and it made her swallow the rest of the vomit that was threatening to come up. He shoved her into the back seat of the black SUV and followed in next to her. She had scooted herself over to the other side and as Chuckles began to drive off, The Joker pulled out a cell phone. He put it to his face after dialing the GCPD.

"_Your name sir, please state-_"

But the Joker cut the operator off, "_8__th__ at Orchard. You'll find Harvey Dent there_." With that, he pressed the end button and threw the cell phone out of the window.

He noticed that Aubrey was staring at the blood on her hands and finally shaking a bit. He smirked, leaning back into his seat with a happy sigh.

* * *

The door to the apartment building smashed open. James Gordon had his gun drawn as he took in the scene. There were two men sitting at the kitchen table, each holding a hand of cards as if they'd been in the middle of playing a game. _All Jokers_, he grew angry. He and Ramirez stared at the crude smiles that had been carved into their faces and noticed that their licenses were pinned to them.

_"Check the names_," a gravelly voice spoke up from the shadows.

Gordon moved over, checking the licenses, "Patrick Harvey, Richard Dent."

"Harvey Dent," Ramirez spoke up with a sigh.

"I need ten minutes with the scene before your men contaminate it," Batman spoke up.

"_Us _contaminate it? It's because of you that these guys are dead in the first place!" Officer Ramirez spoke up angrily. Gordon interrupted her and gave her a look to cause her to stand down.

Batman moved past the bodies to the wall where there was a bullet lodged. He pulled a sawing device out of one of his pockets and began to cut around it.

"What are you going to do, take ballistics out of a shattered bullet?" Gordon spoke up, confused.

"No, fingerprints." Ramirez looked at Gordon asking silently if the Batman was serious. Batman continued speaking, "There are finger prints on the window behind you, too. I could scan those here, right now, if you want."

"Whatever you're going to do, do it quick. Because we know his next target. He put it in tomorrows paper," he held up a newspaper for the next day with Mayor Garcia on it. The picture had a red grin painted over the lower half of the Mayor's face and two black circles drawn around the eyes. Red _Ha ha ha_'s also painted the paper.

Batman moved across the room to the window after pocketing the piece of wall. He pushed a button on the side of his cowl and scanned the finger prints on the window. His stomach flip flopped as he grew angry and nauseous at the same time. Gordon noticed the silence, "Well?"

"Aubrey Wayne was here," he growled out.


	9. Nine

**Author's Note**: Thanks everyone for reading and reviewing, you're the best! Also, two chapters out today. Possibly three if I get any down time. Enjoy!

_Disclaimer: I do not own the Dark Knight, or Batman or any of the characters. _

_

* * *

_

_Why had he dragged Aubrey there_? Was the question ringing in the heads of three men.

James Gordon sat at his desk in his office planning out all of the security measures that they were going to take for the next day. He sighed, taking his glasses off and rubbing the bridge of his nose as the question entered his mind. Had he done it because he was really just that sick that he had to make her watch him do it? Had he gotten some sort of a sick pleasure out of it? He groaned putting his face in his hands as he thought of any possible reason to have drug Aubrey there.

Alfred Pennyworth sat and watched as Bruce Wayne tore himself apart over the same fact. Why _had _he brought Aubrey there? Possibly because he couldn't have left her at the house. Aubrey was bright, she could have escaped. But he was sure that there was some type of a security there. Had she been acting up? Aubrey could find ways to push peoples' buttons and annoy them. She was a psychologist after all, she'd been trained to know how to get to people.

Bruce Wayne was the final person to think this over. He had taken into account the exact same reasons that Jim Gordon and Alfred had come up with. It could have just been because he wanted her to see it or it could have just been that she was getting on his nerves. Or, it could have been that Aubrey was terribly hard to scare.

Aubrey worked with the criminally insane (and the generally insane) population of Gotham City on a daily basis. She had seen a lot of horrible things in her life time and she had been threatened numerous times. Though she had never been kidnapped, Bruce imagined that she had taken it quite well…up until she had to see someone get their face carved. That would scar anyone for life. He then groaned at the horrible pun that entered his mind, focusing again on his sister. He knew she was strong - Hell, they all knew Aubrey was tough. The question was, was she tough enough to handle the Joker?

* * *

When they'd gotten back to the hideout, Aubrey had quietly made her way downstairs into the basement. She hadn't come back up for awhile now. The Joker, curious, decided to see what she was doing down there.

He descended the stairs to see Aubrey just sitting on the floor in the corner that she'd sat in earlier. She had her knees pulled up to her chest as she stared straight ahead, eyes glossed over with a blank look in them. Had she actually been _there_ in the head, she would have been looking at the coffee table across the room. However, with the look in her eyes, the Joker knew she was too far away to see anything.

He stared at her for a moment longer, cocking his head to the side. Her face and her arms, along with her shirt and sweatpants were splattered with blood. It was in her hair as well. He smirked, kind of enjoying the look on the petite brunette. He then realized that she hadn't moved since he'd gotten there. Did she even know he was there?

"_Aubrey_," he called out, stepping forward. She didn't budge. He tried again, standing right in front of her, _"Aubrey_." Again, there was no response. Sighing, he leaned down right in front of her face and screamed out, "_**Aubrey**_!"

Her eyes snapped up, her face tense as she looked at him. He pursed his lips, confused as she stared up at him. As he was about to speak, she beat him to it.

"I want to shower," she stated simply. Her voice was small, weak, but it still held such a tone of authority that he was flabbergasted. Was she even afraid of _him_? Or was it just the blood?

He nodded dumbly. "Get up then," he snapped quickly.

She stood to her feet, still looking tense. She set her jaw, "I'll need another pair of clothes to sleep in."

"Oh _really_? You know **uh** Aubrey, if you make anymore demands I'll have you sleeping with the clowns. With _nothing_ on."

She nodded, understanding him. She hadn't even flinched at the thought. He growled, grabbing her by the elbow and pulling her up the stairs. _What had she been doing down there all night?_

He pulled her into his room and nearly threw her into the bathroom, "Towels are in the **uh** cabinet under the s_ink_. There should be soap and **uh** other stuff in there already."

She nodded again, still silent, shutting the door slowly before locking it. She peeled the clothes off of herself and threw them to the side. She turned the water on as hot as it would go before putting a towel on top of the counter next to the sink. She also grabbed a washcloth and then stepped into the tub. She put the cloth on the little bar above the shelf that housed the soap and let the water scald her skin.

As the water turned her skin red, Aubrey added to it, grabbing the cloth and getting it sudsy with soap. She then began to scrub her skin, which was already flushed, to a lobster red color. She watched as all of the blood flowed down the drain. She watched it loop around the drain before going down it. That's when she lost it.

She slid down the wall into a sitting position under the burning water and began to sob. The entire event had reminded her of two of her own: the murder of her parents, and Jonathan Crane's fear toxin. She began sobbing uncontrollably. She had only been four years old when their parents had been murdered, but she could still remember it.

_Bruce had begun to get upset. _Aubrey remembered._ The opera had reminded him of falling down and being with the bats. _

_ "Can we go?" he had looked up at their father. Aubrey had pouted for show, but had been somewhat pleased. What four year old liked the opera?_

_ "Yeah, let's go," their father smiled over at him. As they exited, their mother frowned, "What's wrong, Bruce?"_

_ "No, no," their father defended, "It was me. I needed some fresh air. A little bit of opera goes a long way, right Bruce?" Bruce held his sister's hand as they walked down the alley and looked up at his father, smiling gratefully. "Come on, let's go," he smiled at his family. Before they knew it a man was there, mugging them._

_ "Come on, now. Wallets, jewelry. Now. Fast."_

_ "Alright, take it easy."_

_ "Fast!" The mugger pointed a gun at their father. Bruce had put himself in front of Aubrey slightly. _

_ "Take it easy, take it easy," their father spoke calmly as he handed the man his wallet slowly, "There you go. Now take it and go."_

_ The man moved towards their mother. Aubrey had frowned, moving out from behind Bruce, "I said jewelry," he reached out towards her._

_ "Hey!" their father spoke up. He hadn't wanted him to touch Martha. A gunshot sliced through the night air. _

_ Thomas Wayne hit the ground. Aubrey's eyes grew wide. "Papa!" she screamed out at the same time their mother cried out "Thomas!"_

_ Another gunshot rang through the night as Aubrey tried to reach their mother. Then, Martha Wayne fell down. _

_ "Bruce? Aubrey," their father whispered. The two looked down upon him. "It's okay," he tried to smile, "Don't be afraid." His teeth chattered, as if he was cold, and then he stopped moving. His blood made it's way towards the drain near the side of the road, dripping into it.  
_

_ After a few moments, James Gordon found the two standing there, holding hands and just staring down at their parents. Aubrey Wayne had been splattered with her mother's blood, just droplets of it, and her tears had cleared a path through the red on her face._

_ She had looked down and saw blood on her arms, on her nice opera dress, on her shoes. Her mother's blood._

When she opened her eyes she remembered the blood on her tonight. She remembered when Jonathan had tested the fear toxin out on her many months ago. She'd seen blood on her then, too. Her mother's blood, her father's, Bruce's, everyone's. She was terrified of having a loved one's blood on her. The splatter on her tonight had triggered that. That, and the fact that she didn't know who this man was and if he had any diseases or not.

She finally got out of the shower when the water was nearly ice and dried herself off, shaking from her memory. She tiptoed into the Joker's room, still shaking and found the pile of clothes he'd left for her. She looked around the room to make sure that he wasn't there before putting the clothes on, snagging her bra and underwear from the bathroom before she did so. She climbed up onto his bed, not caring. She didn't want to sleep in the cold basement by herself. Not tonight. Even if he was a murderous clown who had triggered her fear tonight. He was still going to be there. Possibly. She lay down, her arms curled up under her head as her nose rested in the crook of her elbows and her feet pulled up towards her butt. She closed her eyes and silently cried herself to sleep.

The Joker finally heard the water stop upstairs and rolled his eyes. _Finally_, he thought. He sighed, moving out of the arm chair and stepping over a few passed out (or dead - he wasn't sure) goons. He opened his bedroom door, "Are you finally clean enough?" he called out sarcastically.

There was no response and his eyes scanned the room. He saw that the bathroom door was open and then he saw her on his bed. He raised his eyebrows up, surprised as he moved over towards her. Her skin looked as if she'd scrubbed it raw and her face was puffy and had tear streaks on it. She'd fallen asleep crying, he noted. He felt victorious that he'd made her cry after she'd talked such a big game down in the basement earlier.

He smiled, climbing on the bed next to her. He clapped his hands twice after he was under the covers and the lights went off. He smirked, giggling to himself at the device that performed such a task and the fact that he was sleeping in the same bed as society's princess. _Oh, what a world._

The next morning, Aubrey opened one eye to the dimly lit room. She was warm which puzzled her, she'd woken up in the middle of the night shivering from the cold and had struggled to fall back asleep.

She wasn't shocked to find the Joker in bed with her. In fact, she'd expected it -it was his bed after all. What she was surprised about however, was that he had given her a blanket in the middle of the night, probably sometime after she'd been awake. She clutched it with one hand -it was a thin fleece blanket, but she suspected it was the kindest thing that the Joker had done in years for anyone. The other thing that had surprised her was the hand resting on the small of her back.

She followed that hand down an arm and up to a shoulder until her eyes met with the Joker's black covered ones. He grinned, "_Morning, toots!_" His shrill laugh filled the room.

Aubrey winced, it was far too early for that noise in her eardrums. He grinned, showing off his yellow teeth, "Sleep _well_?" he snuggled into his pillow with a deadly innocent smile on his face.

She nodded and gestured towards her blanket, "Thank you."

"Well, I couldn't have a W_ayne_-cicle in bed. _Plus_ you were keeping me up!"

"Sorry."

"S'okay," he waved it off, removing his hand from her back after realizing it was there and frowning, "Find something to wear," he got off of the bed and she heard the water turn on after he entered the bathroom. She sighed, throwing the blanket off of herself and moving over towards the closet.

After her raid of his wardrobe she found a small pair of jeans that were still too big for her and after finding a belt, she used one of the many knives on the ground to poke a hole through it so she could use it to keep the jeans up. Once that was accomplished she pulled on a new pair of his wonky socks and slid her feet into a pair of his sneakers, tying them tightly to keep them on. She found a wife beater that was a men's small and although it hung loose on her thin body, it fit better than any of his other shirts. She sat on the edge of the bed and waited for her captor patiently.

When he finally came out of the bathroom, he was still clad in only a towel. Aubrey Wayne had only ever seen three men in a towel in her entire lifetime. Those three men were her father, her brother, and a very embarrassed Jonathan Crane. The Joker, however, was not family or anything close to it. He was a foreign man in her life - a foreign, naked man.

Although he was thin, the Joker had very defined muscles in his arms as well as a six pack on his stomach. As water dripped down him, she followed it to the source rather than to the towel. His hair was sopping wet and it no longer looked green. Her eyes then darted to the part of him that she had over looked - his face. She gasped. It was just as naked as the rest of him.

His skin was somewhat tan and surprisingly clear for wearing all of the makeup that he did. Seeing through the scars, the man was beautiful. However, the scars weren't even as bad as the makeup made them out to be.

He noticed her staring and smirked for a moment before noticing that she was looking at his scars, _"Not polite_", he sang out angrily. He turned around to began to dress as she whispered out, "They're not as bad as you make them out to be."

He turned his head over his shoulder to look at her. He'd just gotten done pulling underwear up under his towel and shaking his head like a dog as he rubbed his hair with said towel. _"What_?"

She looked up to see as he pulled his pants up. He also had really nice back muscles, she noted. Those were her weakness in most men. He turned to her as he pulled a shirt on over his head, "What did you say?"

"I said," she spoke louder, clearer now, "Your scares are not as bad as you make them out to be."

He blinked in response, stepping towards the bed, "They're not that bad?" He was directly in front of her and her nostrils filled with the scent of soap as she stared up at him, "No," she whispered. He looked down into her eyes, "You're still not afraid of me."

"No," she whispered again.

_"Why_?" he whispered. He had held his composure as he asked her, but really deep down inside it was killing him. He had never had anyone stand up to him before, besides the bat, and this was driving him crazy. He needed to know why this girl wasn't afraid of him or disgusted by his scars.

"Because," she looked in his eyes, "You're just a person. Even with everything that you've done, you're still just a person."

He was closer to her now. She swallowed the lump in her throat as she felt him come closer and soon enough she felt the heat of his breath on her lips. "You need a sweatshirt." Then it was cold; he was gone. She looked at him confused, "For what?"

_"_F_iiiie_l_**d**_ T**r**_iii__**p**_!" he sang out with a smile. He slid some shoes on and began to dig through his closet.

"Not," she began, standing up, "Not like last time, right?"

"Oh, no," he smirked to himself inside of the closet, "Here you go!" He threw a large black hooded sweatshirt at her. She pulled the sweatshirt on over her head and frowned. She could fit several other people inside of it with her.

The Joker laughed at her, grabbing a hat and shoving it on his own head, pushing it down so it hid the top of his face. He then grabbed her hand and dragged her off.


	10. Ten

**Author's Note**: Two chapters in one day!

_Disclaimer: I do not own the Dark Knight or any of the characters except for my own._

_

* * *

_

"That piece of street **scum**!" he cried out, throwing a fist in the air. He paced around his office angrily, hissing out breaths as they came in. He was furious.

Rachel frowned, watching as his fists clenched and unclenched repeatedly. She frowned, "I know you care about Aubrey," she whispered softly, "But we need to focus on today."

He turned to her, glaring. "What do you want to focus on, Rachel? The fact that the Joker has our best friend or the fact that the Joker is going to keep her there for God knows how long? Because that's all I can think about!"

She stood up with a soft sigh and moved towards him, "Harvey, this isn't going to solve _anything_. Can't you see? This is what he wants you to do. He wants you to lose your temper with him and cause a scene. You can't do that, please. I'm sure she's fine."

Harvey kissed the top of Rachel's head, nodding, "Yeah. So what exactly are we focusing on today?"

Rachel rolled her eyes. Harvey hadn't retained much information since Aubrey had been taken. "Well, we have to keep the mayor safe during the ceremony for Loeb. Remember? The threat last night?"

"Oh yeah," Harvey frowned.

* * *

The Joker was absolutely bouncing in his seat as Chuckles drove off like a maniac. Aubrey had noticed that Chuckles was the man she'd given a dropped wallet to and frowned. She then furrowed her eyebrows up in thought, The Joker had been following her. Puzzled, she looked around the car. There was another man in the passenger seat and Aubrey had been shoved in the middle of the back seat between the Joker and a former patient at Arkham that she remembered as Thomas Schiff, a paranoid schizophrenic. She hadn't had him as a patient personally, but Jonathan had.

They pulled into an alley and the engine shut off. The Joker stepped out of the van, pulling Aubrey out along with him, "Hood up," he growled out.

Aubrey listened immediately, putting her hood up with one hand as the Joker still held her other. "Where are we?"

He smiled brightly, "We're at the ceremony for the dearly departed Commissioner Loeb," he pulled her along with him down the alley way. She frowned, "What?"

"Oh! I didn't tell you?" he smacked his forehead with the palm of his free hand, giving her a tug to keep her up to speed, "Judge Surrillo and Commissioner Loeb had an accident," he frowned. Quickly, his frown was replaced by a giggle as he tugged her into an apartment building.

They walked up a few flights of stairs before stopping outside of a door and waiting for a moment. Chuckles did some sort of a secret knock on the door and it creaked open. There were about four more of the Joker's men inside.

As they made their way inside the apartment Aubrey noticed that there were men being tied up. They were clad only in white boxers and undershirts and blindfolded. All of them had duct tape on their mouths except for one. She saw that the Joker's men were passing out the uniforms which were obviously stolen from these men and frowned.

"Please!" The man without duct tape screamed, "Don't do this! Please don't leave us here like this!"

Aubrey frowned as the Joker, who was fixing the jacket of his uniform, turned to face them. "Aubrey," he snapped his head in the direction of the man, "Shut him up."

Aubrey scurried over to where the men were and knelt down by the man's side. "Shh," she spoke to him softly, "Be quiet and he'll leave you alone."

"_Aubrey_," the Joker snapped again. She brought her head up to face him, "**Uh** not like _that_. Duct tape, sweetheart."

"I…what?" she looked confused.

"Duc**t** _ta_pe-**uh**_**. Over his mouth.**_ Do not make me do it."

She found the roll of duct tape on the floor nearby. Shaking, she tore a piece off and pressed it over the man's mouth, "I'm so sorry," she whispered.

The Joker yanked her back up, away from the man and pulled the hood of her sweatshirt up to hide her face better as he dragged her outside, hand around her wrist. He pushed her towards the growing crowd, "Go into the middle of the crowd. Do _not_ run, do not make a sce**ne**-**uh**, do not be seen." She nodded, slinking her way into the middle of the crowd.

* * *

Bruce burst into the apartment and glanced around. He moved over to the men which were bound and ripped the duct tape off of one of their mouths. He growled out, "_What happened_?"

"He took our guns," the man whimpered out, "Our uniforms!"

"_Who_?"

"The Joker. His men," the man sputtered out. Bruce moved away, leaving him blindfolded, "And some girl."

"_What girl_?" He turned back.

"I don't know," he gulped, "I was blindfolded when the Joker and her came in. He kept snapping at her…called her Aubrey."

_Aubrey_, he moved towards the window. There was a kitchen timer at the window and a scope. Bruce looked out of it to see a man with flesh colored scars on his face grinning as he turned his gun at the mayor. The Joker. The timer went off and the shade snapped up causing the GCPD sniper to shoot at him. He ducked and when he was sure that the sniper's attention was on the _screaming_ crowd, he looked back out.

Jim Gordon lay on the stage, dead. A familiar scream broke him out of his trance. He looked down into the crowd and saw a hooded figure pushing through the crowd, going the opposite way -towards the stage. As he looked longer, the figure's hood fell and he gasped as his sister's curly hair fell down around her. She was screaming and pushing through them, tears down her face. Then, a man grabbed her by the wrist and drug her off. _The Joker_, he set his jaw.

* * *

Aubrey stayed in place, swaying her weight from foot to foot. She wasn't entirely sure what the Joker was going to do here and frankly, she really didn't want to know. She knew how easy it would be to call out to Jim as she stared up at him. She was smiling at him in spite of her instructions and the fact that Jim would never see her all the way back there. She watched as Jim's eyes landed on something. Confused, Aubrey moved a little bit closer towards the stage. Then, he jumped in front of a bullet before falling down.

_Papa! _rang through her ears and momentarily Jim Gordon looked like her father falling down in the alleyway.

"_Dad!_" she screamed out absent minded as she made her way towards the stage, "_Jim!_" she was screaming, tears down her face. Not Jim, she prayed.

As the crowd knocked her backwards, Aubrey kept trying to seemingly swim through them towards her best friend, still crying. A rough hand grabbed her wrist and pulled her off as she kicked and screamed. She looked up at the sky and saw familiar eyes in a window. She looked at him, pleading with him to save her. _Bruce, please_.

The Joker had pulled her into a nearby alley and shoved the hat into his coat. He unzipped her sweatshirt in a heart beat and ripped it off of her, putting it on himself. He then pushed her into the wall, one hand on her hip and the other hand on the side of her face. He pushed his lips upon her own quickly, trying to blend in as a normal citizen.

She stood there confused for a moment as his hand went under her shirt to rest on her bare hip. At the touch of his skin, she recoiled, pushing him away, "You killed Jim Gordon," she hissed out, tears still present on her face.

He growled back at her, "Shut up. If you get me caught I will carve more than a smile into you," his eyes were dark as he spoke. He pushed her back up against the wall and kissed her again, his hand digging into her hair.

She had her eyes clenched shut as she continued to cry. The man had just killed her best friend and he was trying to kiss her? As they heard footsteps at the end of the alley, the Joker pulled her hair hard and she opened her mouth to cry out. His tongue darted inside and his nails scratched at the skin of her hip.

Her hands found their way to his hair and she buried them in it, nicely at first, but as a smirk made it's way to her lips, she dug her own fingers in and yanked it hard -almost hard enough to pull it out. If he was going to hurt her, she was going to hurt him.

However, her plan backfired as he growled playfully and bit her on the lip, pulling it back. His hand was moving up her back and it was underneath the strap of her bra as he rubbed his hand down her skin. The roughness of his hands against her smooth skin gave her the shivers.

After a few more moments, he threw her away from him and grabbed her hand before dragging her off. Angry, upset, and confused, she dug her nails into his hand so hard that by the time they got back to the hideout, he was bleeding profusely.

* * *

He threw her into his room and shut the door. She heard a click and as she dashed towards it, it was locked. Enraged, she shrieked, hitting it with both of her hands before breaking down into sobs. Jim Gordon was gone forever and his murderer had just kissed her in an alleyway in downtown Gotham. She lay on the bed, sobbing into the crook of her elbow.

The Joker sat downstairs where one of his men told him that the word on the street was that tomorrow afternoon, the Batman was going to turn himself in. Giggling, he formulated ideas of what he wanted to do. After an hour or so he was satisfied with his plan (but he wasn't satisfied with calling it that) and he turned his train of thought from destruction to Aubrey Wayne.

She was the first girl he had kissed since he'd received his scars. He hadn't done it with any real emotion really, he had just done it so that the police wouldn't see his face. And she had fought him about it, he smiled softly remembering the tug on his hair. He shivered, his arm hair standing up on end. Without a second thought, he pushed himself out of his arm chair and made his way upstairs humming.

He opened the door and peeked in. She was laying on the bed and he couldn't see her moving, or breathing for that matter. He had forgotten to feed her these past few days, he realized, but he hadn't really eaten either so he doubted that she could be dead.

Smiling, he tiptoed over to her and as he sat at the edge of the bed with his signature grin, he was tackled off of it at the noise of a battle cry. She rolled on top of him and began punching him in the face. He had to laugh because some of the punches she threw were actually pretty powerful ones. "You killed him!" She shrieked out at him, hitting him in the chest this time.

He laughed again and with a growl, crept his hands up her waist before flipping her over and rolling so that he was on top this time. He pinned her hands above her head and smiled above her, "A-tat-ta-ta-ta, It's not _my fault_ that he played **uh **hero."

It was remarkable how beautiful a person could look even with puffy eyes and tears streaking down the sides of their face. Her hair was a mess underneath her and it was the anger in her eyes made her even more desirable. He stared down at her, fighting with himself.

He wasn't a soft person. He never experienced emotions. He hadn't since _that night_. He was angry with himself for even thinking about the girl in any way other than a pawn in his game of chess. However, he was still a man. And men had urges. He leaned down almost immediately and connected his lips with her own. She whimpered a bit underneath him and he could tell she was still crying. But, she kissed back.

Aubrey's hands immediately found their way into the man's hair once he let go of them and began moving his hands under her shirt, rubbing them up and down her sides. She made a tiny noise in the back of her throat before nipping at his lip as he had done to her earlier.

She really wasn't aware of anything that she was doing. If she'd been analyzing herself, she would have said that it was because she needed to be comforted. He was the only person that she knew in this general area and this form of comfort would have to do for her.

She knew it was sick to kiss the man that killed her best friend and she hated herself for it, but she could not bring herself to stop doing it. She was even still crying as he sliced her shirt off of her body with a knife in his pocket. He refused to let his mouth leave hers because then it might give her the time to realize what she was doing.

Aubrey parted her lips after letting out a little sigh once he rubbed the back of her neck and the Joker's tongue found it's way inside to explore. As his tongue caressed hers, almost invoking it, she could feel a certain part of him stiffen down below. He was still on top of her as she arched up into him and pulled him down on top of her closer. She needed someone to be close to her, touching her, holding her. She just needed to know that there was someone there, even if that person right now was a murderer. He didn't object at all to what she was doing. It had been years since he'd been with a woman and it was all coming back to him.

She let her thumbs trace his scars and that was the cue for him to pull back, glaring at her. Her eyes were soft however as she traced them, almost as if she had sympathy for him. She leaned up and kissed each one lightly before laying back down on the ground.

Now, the Joker was confused. What was with this girl? He leaned his forehead on hers, nuzzling his nose with her nose for a split second before jumping up and leaving the room. Aubrey sat up on the floor and waited for him to come back, but he didn't.


	11. Eleven

_**Author's Note: **__Thank you for informing me of my grammatical error, __**MienFacade!**__ I know there are a lot more (spelling I'm pretty good on…thank God for spell check), but right now I don't have the time to go back and fix them. Eventually, I will. Also a big THANK YOU to everyone else who's been reading and reviewing, you guys are the best. And, because I missed my only class today: I bring you Chapter Eleven? Yep, it's eleven. Also, a huge plus for me: I was going through all my Cds and I found my Dark Knight soundtrack. I know what I'm driving around town to later… Anyways, enough of my rambling, Enjoy everyone!_

_Disclaimer: I do not own The Dark Knight or any of the characters._

* * *

When Aubrey finally realized that he wasn't coming back that night she snagged another one of his shirts and put it on. The next morning she woke up and after going to the bathroom connected to his room, she sat on the edge of the bed. She hugged her arms around her self as her stomach growled. She was _starving. _How long had she been there? What was the last thing she'd eaten? A shrimp off of the tray at the party? She frowned and looked over as the door opened. The scent of cinnamon entered the room. The man that was coming in was the same man she recognized as Chuckles. He smiled at her, holding a simple white plate in his hands with a bowl and a spoon on top of it.

"I know it's not much, but the boss said you haven't eaten. It's really all we have here," he handed her the plate and she looked down at it. It was oatmeal. She smiled up at him, "I actually really like oatmeal," she laughed lightly, "Thank you."

"Oh!" he shouted out, searching his pockets. He pulled out a water bottle and handed it to her. It was cold. She realized how thirsty she was, setting the plate on her lap as she took a few large gulps of water. She smiled up at the henchman, "I think you're my favorite."

He laughed, "Thanks," he pointed towards the bowl, "You can bring it downstairs when you're done, Boss said there's no reason to keep you looked up."

She nodded as he closed the door and devoured the entire bowl of oatmeal immediately once she was sure he was gone. She gulped down the rest of the water and sighed, her stomach content.

The Joker wasn't in the kitchen when she brought her dishes out, but she rinsed them out and left them in the sink before snagging another water bottle and dashing up the stairs. He was in there when she opened the door, applying makeup to his face. She frowned, she had liked his naked face.

"Oh _goodie_! You're up! **Let's go**," he yanked her arm and pulled her downstairs. All of the henchmen were waiting downstairs in chairs, their masks thrown around on the ground. She realized that this was their makeshift living room as there were bowls of popcorn and cans of beer around mismatched end tables and that the TV was on the wall. Chuckles handed an unopened beer to Aubrey and she smiled at him before sitting on the arm of his chair.

"Turn it on!" The Joker squealed out, laying across the couch.

The TV was turned on immediately to GCN and Aubrey noticed that a press conference of some sort was going on. Confused, she took a sip of her beer, winced at the disgusting taste, and tilted her head. Harvey Dent, handsome as always, stood at a podium speaking into multiple microphones. Once he stated that the Batman had promised to step forward, Aubrey gasped, choking on her beer. _What?_ Her eyes locked in on Bruce in the crowd. He was really serious. She could tell because Bruce never went to press conferences unless they were his own. And even then, usually Aubrey spoke for him.

"Alright, take the Batman into custody," Harvey stepped back for a moment before stepping forward, "I am the Batman." The room was silent as the Joker began to laugh. Aubrey frowned, _WHAT?_

"They'll probably move him from MCU to County tonight, huh, Boss?"

"Right, Dopes! Go get the guns ready!" He looked over at Aubrey and frowned as she stared straight at the wall. She hadn't spoken since he'd grabbed her and brought her downstairs.

Once they were upstairs he sighed, "You're going home tonight, so you can be happy." She still said nothing. She just merely nodded at him. "Why aren't you talking?'

"What do you want me to say?" she whispered. She didn't want to talk to him because she didn't want anything about last night brought up. She didn't know what had come over her and she really didn't want to think about it. "I am grateful that you're letting me go home-"

"I'm **not**," he cut her off, moving to stand by his mirror.

"What? But, but you just said," she furrowed her eyebrows together.

"I'm **not-uh**_ letting_ you," he smacked his lips together. "They're taking you _away_-**uh**."

"Who is?" she asked quietly. She was genuinely curious as to who he meant. He could have meant the mob or the police or anyone for that matter.

He just smiled, his eyes half closed. She frowned and with a sigh moved and sat on the edge of his bed. After another moment, he moved and sat next to her. He turned to face her as she did him and he leaned in, eyes closed.

She felt herself leaning in as well, but as she felt the warmth of his breath on her face, she let their noses touch before turning her head away with a gulp. He got up without a word and left her in the room. She sat there, confused by everything, until he came back for her later.

* * *

He pushed her up and into a truck before following her in. She sat on the floor of it, up against one of the walls. As the truck lurched forwards, she closed her eyes. She just wanted to be away from all of this madness, where things made sense. She wanted to be home with her brother in the mansion, not the penthouse. She wanted to be with the Gordon family, watching the youngest of the crew. At the thought of the Gordons, Aubrey began to sob violently to herself. She kept herself quiet, but the clowns could all see her shaking violently in the dark of the truck.

She brought her knees up to her chest at the sound of an explosion and wrapped her arms around them. At the sound of a crash, she buried her face into her knees. She wasn't really afraid, except for the fear that they would blow up the Joker's truck without realizing she was in it.

Metal scraped against metal as the side door of the truck slid open. The cool breeze rushing in from the side felt amazing as it went through Aubrey's hair. She picked her head up and tilted it to the side, watching the purple silhouette in front of her.

He was shooting at one of the GCPD's armored vans, his coat billowing behind him wildly. When he realized that his guns weren't doing anything, he picked up a bazooka. Aubrey's eyes grew wide _Really_?

"What is that?" The officer in the van cried out, "Is that a bazooka!" His eyes then narrowed when he saw a figure in the truck behind the Joker, curled up into their self. "Is that…?" he whispered as the Batmobile distracted him. Aubrey smirked as her brother showed up, _Oh Thank God._

She widened her eyes at all of the destruction her brother was causing. She hadn't ever really seen her brother in action, except for Ra'as Al Ghul and the party. She gasped as their truck almost crashed as debris hit the driver of it in the head. The Joker cackled like mad as they were all thrown around the back.

He climbed down out of it, Chuckles following. Aubrey tagged along because she didn't want to be left in the back of the trailer.

The Joker beamed at the dead driver, yanking him out, "Scuze me, I wanna drive."

Aubrey squeezed herself between Chuckles and the Joker. He began racing towards Batman. As the Batman fired something out at them, the Joker laughed. "He missed!" Chuckles cried out.

Aubrey's eyes narrowed and she climbed onto Chuckle's lap, putting her feet on the dashboard and grabbing the handle above their heads with both hands. "No, he didn't!" she screamed out.

The Joker's eyes narrowed this time as he saw a cable catch on to something. The truck stopped completely and as it flipped over, all he heard was Aubrey screaming bloody murder. Once the truck was down, the Joker staggered out immediately. Chuckles crawled out following him after Aubrey got off of him and she was the last one out, crawling on the ground and coughing.

Chuckles lay on the ground, she noticed, due to a reason unknown to her. She saw that the Joker was leering over Batman with a knife. Coughing, she kicked it out of his hand.

"_What are you doing_?" He stared at her, eyes wide. A gun was pressed to his back, "Can you please just give me a minute here?" he pleaded.

He was forcibly turned around,. "We got you, you son of a bitch."

Even the Joker's eyes widened at the sight before him. He nearly giggled, he hadn't expected this one. Aubrey looked up at him from the ground next to her masked brother, "Jim," her voice was heavy with relief.

His eyes widened, "Aubrey," he turned around and shouted over his shoulder, "Someone come contain this scum bag!" Once two more officers stepped forward, Jim reached down and helped Aubrey up. She engulfed herself in his arms immediately, "Oh, Jim, I thought you were dead," she began crying again.

"You were there, Aubrey?" he winced. He hadn't thought that Aubrey would have to see that. It was hard enough watching her parents get shot, and watching those other two men get shot the night before. But to see her friend get shot as well must have been terrible on her.

She nodded, sobbing, "Oh, Jim I was such a wreck about it, I called you _dad_!" she whispered into his chest. He hugged her tighter, resting his chin on her head as the Batman got up in the background.

"You're safe now," he looked down at her before kissing her head, "I've got you, Aubrey. You're safe now," he was whispering into the top of her head lovingly as the Batman stared at the two before disappearing.

* * *

"_Miss Wayne_," the female detective greeted her. She sat across from Aubrey, "Are you alright?"

Aubrey nodded, tiredly, "I'm just tired and hungry," she whispered.

"Did he feed you?" the detective questioned carefully. Aubrey nodded before replying _Once_. The detective made a note of that and pushed a button. She mumbled into it to bring Aubrey something to drink and eat. Then she turned back to Aubrey. "What else happened while you were there?"

"Um," Aubrey struggled to remember the important things. "Well, he took me. And I stayed in a room for awhile. The next night he took me to that apartment with…Harvey and Dent?" she looked up confused. The detective motioned for her to continue. "Then he let me shower and change clothes. The day after that was the ceremony, I think. And he dragged me there, too. Pushed me off into the crowd and told me not to go anywhere until he came to get me."

"And you didn't run?'

Aubrey shook her head, "You've seen what he can do. Why would I want to run from that? I'd have to endure the violence he inflicts onto people."

"He didn't hit you?"

Aubrey scrunched her face up, "No, I don't remember him doing it. He kept grabbing me when we had to go places and yanking me along," she looked at her bruised wrists, "But that was it."

"Aubrey, did he touch you?" Aubrey's eyes went wide for a moment. She was thinking of their kiss. The detective noticed her frozen stance and held up a hand to pause the officer bringing in food. "Aubrey, if he did you can tell us."

"I already told you he grabbed me," Aubrey whispered, "That was it." She was terrified of what would happen if they'd found out he'd kissed her. What would they say to her? About her? What would they do to _him_?

"Yes, you did," the detective nodded, "But what else did he do? Did he touch you in any other way?"

Aubrey shook her head no, "He didn't I swear."

"Aubrey we can have them bring a rape kit-"

"I want to go home," she whispered. She was beginning to cry, now. She kept shaking her head no, "He didn't touch me, just please believe me. He didn't rape me."

The detective nodded, "Then why are you crying?"

"Because he _kissed_ me!" she finally screamed out, tears flowing. Her eyes went wide after that. No. Now he could tell them that _she_ kissed _him_.

Jim Gordon and Bruce Wayne stood outside the interrogation room, both with clenched fists. The detective hit the stop button on the recorder and made a gesture to her neck that meant they should stop. Jim nodded, though the woman couldn't see them and buzzed her and the officer out, leaving Aubrey inside alone.

Jim brought the food in himself, sitting across from her. "We got you some cheese burgers," he mused lightly. "I know you like them," he looked down at the table. The image of that clown kissing the girl he loved as a daughter had invaded his head. He couldn't look at her.

She sniffed slightly, looking away from him, "That's why I didn't want to say anything," she whispered, "You can't even look at me now."

Jim's head snapped up instantly, "Aubrey, I can't look at you because it hurts to imagine him touching you like that. Not because of you, sweetheart. You didn't do anything wrong," he whispered to her.

She shook her head 'no' back and forth because she knew that she _had_ done something wrong. She had let him. She had even kissed him. "I let him," she whispered, "Oh, God, it's so terrible," she put her face in her hands. Jim frowned, "It's okay Aubrey, he's a very manipulative man. It's not your fault, sweetheart. Please, eat something, for me. Bruce is outside if you want to see him."

At the mention of her brother, Aubrey scowled, "I don't want to see him."

Bruce, outside, looked down. He had expected that. Even though she had knelt next to him on the ground and kicked the blade out of the Joker's hand, he knew that Aubrey was angry with him. He hadn't saved her. Hell, she had saved him technically - she got there before Jim did to stop the Joker from slicing his mask off.

"You won't talk to him?"

Aubrey glared at the two way mirror, "Not here," she spoke firmly. Bruce scratched the back of his neck. He was in for one Hell of a shit storm when he brought Aubrey home.


	12. Twelve

**Author's Note:** In case anyone would like to know: driving around town with the Dark Knight soundtrack is as epic and hilarious as one would imagine it to be. That may be my new recreational activity.

_Disclaimer: I do not own the Dark Knight and I do not own any of the characters._

* * *

When Aubrey exited the interrogation room, after Jim nearly forced a cheeseburger down her throat, she looked up and her breath caught in her throat as she saw the Joker in a holding cage. His makeup had run a bit, some patches of skin showing through. His clothes were all a mess. He only wore his oddly patterned, blue hexagonal shirt and his green vest along with his purple pants. They'd taken his coat away from him. His pants were up a bit at the ankles, showcasing his wonderfully wonky socks and his sleeves were rolled up to his elbows.

He had an eerie calm about him as he sat with his legs apart and his elbows resting on his knees as his fingers intertwined with their counterparts. He didn't flinch as cops began to bash their night sticks against the bars near his head. Gordon growled, "Stand away! All of you! I don't want anything for his mob lawyer to use, do you understand me?"

He turned away sighing. He hadn't seen the Joker since he'd passed him off to another officer. He'd been with Aubrey since they got into the MCU. The Mayor walked in, smiling. He shook Gordon's hand, "Back from the dead?" He mused. He smiled over at Aubrey, "And Miss Wayne, how nice to have you back."

Aubrey smiled, shaking his hand as well, "Thank you." She was wearing a spare cop uniform from the extra stash the MCU kept around. The pants were a size too small, showing off her butt and the shirt was a size too big, so she had a wife beater that Bruce had brought for her on instead of the shirt. She also had on a pair of boots she'd told Bruce to bring as well. They were knee high black leather and she had tucked the cop pants into them.

The Mayor looked over at the Joker in his cage, "What do we got?"

"Nothing," Gordon sighed, defeated, "No matches on prints, DNA, dental. Clothing is custom…no labels. Nothing in his pockets, but knives and lint. No name, no other alias. There's nothing." He had read the file before he'd exited the interrogation room.

"Go home, Gordon. The clown'll keep till morning. Get some rest -you're going to need it. Tomorrow, you take the big job," he got a glint in his eye, "You don't have any say in the matter _Commissioner Gordon_!" Everyone in the MCU began cheering as Aubrey squealed happily and threw her arms around Jim's neck.

"Oh, congratulations, Jim!"

He kissed her forehead, "Thank you, Aubrey."

* * *

Later that night, as Jim was saying good night to his son, his phone rang. It was Aubrey. He exited the bedroom and whispered, "Aubrey?" as he answered.

"Jim," she was crying again. "No one knows where Rachel and Harvey are."

Jim growled out, telling Aubrey he'd be at the MCU as soon as he could. Aubrey chuckled slightly and told him that she would meet him there, hanging up before he could say anything else.

The Joker smiled up at her as she entered. She was wearing her own clothes now, which were much more fitting on her. He licked his lips as his eyes grazed her from the toe up. She had on those boots again, over tight dark skinny jeans. On her torso she had a blue and white striped shirt that was a v-cut and also clung to her small frame. She had showered and fixed up her hair. And he giggled with delight as he saw she had on _makeup_.

"**Uh**, hiya toots," he smirked up at her, "You _know_-uh, I **uh** kind of _liked_ you in that cop uniform."

She screamed out at him, leaping towards the bars of his cell, "_Where is Rachel_?" He just giggled as she tried to squeeze through the tiny gaps and reach him, "_Where is she?_"

He began fully laughing now as an officer drug her off, kicking and screaming, away from his cell. She was still screaming about Rachel. She needed to know where Rachel was.

Gordon finally made his way in and they moved the Joker into the interrogation room. Aubrey watched from behind the glass to see what happened.

"Evening, _Commissioner_."

"Harvey Dent never made it home," Jim cut to the point.

"Of course not," the Joker blinked as if it were obvious.

"What have you done with him?"

"_Me_?" The Joker giggled as he gestured to himself with his bound hands, "I was right here. Who did _**you**_ leave him with? Hm? Your people? That is, assuming of course, that they are still _your_ people and not **Maroni's**…" He smirked a bit, before speaking up, "Does it depress you to know how alone you are? Does it make you feel _responsible_ for **uh** Harvey Dent's current **uh** predicament?"

Jim didn't even looked remotely bothered, "Where is he?"

"What time is it?" The Joker asked quickly.

"What difference does that make?" Jim looked completely puzzled now.

"Well, depending on the _time_, he may be in one spot," he smiled, "Or _several_."

Jim stood up and moved to the Joker before undoing his handcuffs, "If we're going to play games, I'm going to need a cup of coffee." He moved over towards the door.

"Ah, the old good cop, bad cop routine?"

Jim paused, his hand on the door knob, "Not exactly." He was buzzed out and after the door shut, the overhead lights went on. Batman stood behind him. Aubrey didn't look too impressed by the sight of her brother and watched as the Joker blinked in the harsh lighting.

_Wham_! Batman smacked the Joker's face into the table. He backed away.

"Never start with the head," Joker looked fascinated. He didn't even cry out. "Victim gets all…_fuzzy_. Can't feel the next-" Batman's fist slammed down onto the Joker's fingers. Joker didn't even move. He just simple blinked before stating calmly, "See?"

"_You wanted me. Here I am._" Aubrey still couldn't get over her brother's new _Batman_ voice.

"I wanted to see what you'd _do_," The Joker giggled, "And you didn't d_isappoint_**.** Well **uh** you might have disappointed Ms. W_ay_**ne**-**uh**. She had such high hopes that you would come rescue her," He began giggling. "_And_ you let five people die. _Then_ you let Dent take your place. Even to a guy like me, that's **cold**."

"_Where's Dent?"_

"Those mob fools want you gone so they can get back to the way things _were_, but I know the truth! There's no going back. You've changed things," The Joker ignored Batman's question, "_Forever_."

"_Then why do you want to kill me?_"

The Joker began to laugh. It started off as a small giggle before it became so loud and hard that it sounded as if he were sobbing. "_Kill you?_ I don't want to kill _you_! What would I do without you? Go back to ripping off Mob dealers? _No, _**no**. You see, **uh, **you _complete _**me**."

"_You're garbage who kills for money_."

"Don't talk like one of them -you're not. Even if you'd like to be. To them, you're just a freak _like me_. They need you right now, but as soon as they don't, they'll cast you out," he licked his lips, "Like a leper!"

Aubrey was somewhat amused, listening to the Joker speak. His voice was very entertaining the way that it could change pitches. "Their _morals_, their..._code_…it's a bad joke. Dropped at the first sign of trouble. They're only as good as the world _allows_ them to be. You'll _see,_ I'll show you. When the chips are down, these **uh** _civilized _people…they'll **eat** each other." He grinned, "See, I'm not a monster…I'm just ahead of the curve."

He sat calmly for a moment before Batman grabbed him by the shirt and pulled him upright. One of the detectives in the observation room made a move for the door. Gordon held his hand up, "It's okay, he's in control."

Aubrey's eyes flickered back to the scene in the interrogation room. Batman had hoisted the Joker up by his neck. "_Where's Dent_?"

"You have all of these _rules_ and you think that they'll save you."

"_I have one rule."_

"Ohh," the Joker mocked him, "Well, then, that's the one that you'll have to break to know the truth."

"_Which is_?"

The Joker smiled, "The only way to live in this world is _without_ rules. Tonight, you're going to _break_ your one rule."

Batman leaned in, _"I'm considering it."_ Aubrey gasped, eyes wide. He _wouldn't_.

"There are just _minutes_ left so you'll have to play my little game if you want to save _one of them_," he was grinning. Aubrey looked away. She had known Rachel was involved when she hadn't answered her cell phone.

"_Them_?"

"You _know_, for a while there I thought you really were Dent. The way that you _threw_ yourself after her," he giggled. Batman dropped him to the ground and ripped a bolted down chair out of the ground, dragging it to the door as Gordon ran towards it. "Look at you _go." _The Joker mused as Batman drug the chair. He jammed it under the doorknob, picked up the Joker and hurled him into the two way glass. The glass spiders.

Aubrey gasped at how angry her brother was getting. The Joker lay on the floor underneath the glass, "I mean, I had told Aubrey that she was _no _Miss Dawes, although she _is_ much prettier, don't you think?" He giggled. "She thought she was going to be_ saved_ by you, you know. Tell me, does Harvey know about you and his _little_ bunny?"

Aubrey and Bruce each knew what the Joker was trying to do. He was trying to convince them that Batman only cared about Rachel and that Aubrey Wayne was of no importance. However, without knowing it, he was trying to convince Aubrey that _Bruce_ didn't care about her. She looked down with a glare. Bruce had saved her one out of the two times she'd been in danger. The only time being when he saved her from Ra'as Al Ghul. He'd saved Rachel _both _of the times she'd been in danger. He always saved Rachel.

"_WHERE ARE THEY?"_

The Joker was nearly _feeding_ off of Batman's anger. He was loving every second of it. "You choose. One life, over the other. Your friend, the district attorney. Or his blushing bride-to-be," he giggled as Batman punched him. "You have _nothing_. Nothing to threaten me with. Nothing to do with all your strength." He spit a tooth out and Aubrey cringed. "But don't worry, I'm going to tell you where they are. _Both_ of them. Because that's the _point_. You'll have to **choose**. He's at…250 52nd Street and she's _on…_ Avenue X. At Cicero."

Batman dropped the Joker and left the interrogation room, "Which one are you going after?" Gordon was walking right next to him. _"Rachel_," he growled out.

Aubrey nearly growled herself, "Of _course_," she hissed, "Of course you're going after _her_! You always go after her! You didn't even bother to try and find me, did you, you overgrown rodent?"

The Joker smiled to himself in his cell, listening to Aubrey scream at the bat.

Batman ignored her, moving along. Jim pulled her with him, "Come on, Aubrey, let's go get Harvey."

She was seething mad as she sat in the car with Jim. He was driving and she was in the passenger seat. She had been furious with Rachel all week. She had been furious with _Bruce_ all week. She began to ponder what would happen if they didn't make it to Harvey in time. She knew Bruce would make it in time, he didn't care about destroying city property.

She sighed for a moment, "Where are we going?"

"250 52nd Street," Jim reminded her. "We're going after Harvey. Batman chose, remember?"

Aubrey nodded, thinking to herself. She gasped for a moment and Jim glanced over at her. "We're not going after Harvey!"

"What?"

"Don't you think it's weird, that he told Batman he could choose which one to save? What if he's going after Harvey and we're going after Rachel so that if we don't make it in time, Batman loses the one he chose?"

Jim clenched his jaw, "I'm worried at the fact that you're thinking like the Joker, but you could be right."

"I work in an asylum, my brain has been trained to think like madmen," she whispered. She looked out the window and frowned, "I have a really bad feeling about this. Jim, I think we're going after Rachel. Please drive faster!"

"_Aubrey, I…I think Harvey is going to ask me to marry him," Rachel was gushing. It was in the middle of the party. Before Bruce had attacked Harvey and hid him._

"_And?" Aubrey looked up at her, "You're saying no, right? You promised Bruce.."_

_Rachel frowned, "My relationship with Bruce is our business, Bree."_

"_Are you _shitting_ me?" Aubrey growled out, "You're going to fuck over Bruce, aren't you? Oh, that's so like you, Rach."_

"_Aubrey," she pleaded, "Please, I just. I don't think the time will come when he needs to stop."_

"_He loves you," Aubrey whispered silently, "And right now, I can't stand you."_

Aubrey gulped, "Drive _faster_!" she shrieked. She saw the building come into view and she threw herself out of the car before it had even stopped, running up towards the building. _"Rachel!_" she screamed out.

"_Bree_?" she heard a faint scream from the roof.

"_Rachel!_" she screamed back, "I'm coming!"

Jim tackled her down just as she touched the door knob and the building erupted into flames at the roof. _"Rachel!_" Aubrey screamed, tears running down her face. "_No! No, no, no!_" She struggled to get out of Jim's grasp and she raced for the building, "No, Rachel, please no…" she was sobbing as she fell back down to her knees. _Not Rachel_. She thought as her mind went black.

"_Bree, you're going to fall," her laugh filled her ears. Aubrey Wayne looked down at her friend, "No, I'm not, Rach. Trust me, Bruce and I climb this tree all the -"_

_Without saying another syllable, Aubrey Wayne (only six years old) slipped off of the branch of the tree she'd been on. "Bree!" Rachel cried out, grabbing her arm as she zoomed past her. Aubrey groaned at the pressure on her arm, but grinned up at her friend, "Thanks."_

"_Not gonna fall, huh, Bree?" Rachel giggled._


	13. Thirteen

**Author's Note and Disclaimer: Here you go, enjoy! And I do not own anything except for Aubrey!

* * *

**

"_Not gonna fall, huh, Bree?" _rang in her head for days. Aubrey Wayne _had_ fallen, and she had fallen _hard_. The Joker had escaped the MCU, taking Lau with him, and Harvey Dent was half burnt to a crisp. She hadn't said a single word to Bruce since the night that Rachel died. Today was her memorial, as there had been no body to bury.

She was dressed in a sleeveless boat neck black dress that fell to her knees. It was form fitting, but not overly so for a funeral. She also had on sheer black tights and black patent leather heels. Her hair was done in a sophisticated bun at the nape of her neck. At the top of her head and covering her face was a black funeral veil. She had tissues stuffed in her palms that she kept dabbing at her cheeks with. She was sobbing violently in the shoulder of Jim Gordon, her back turned on her brother who stood alone. She knew he was in mourning, too, but she could not face him after everything that the Joker had brought up. He had _left_ her. He hadn't even tried to find her or even talk to her after that night.

* * *

Aubrey sighed, moving towards Harvey. She kissed the nice side of his face and sat on the chair next to him, "Harvey," she whispered.

He looked over at her, showing her his face. The left side was destroyed. It was blackened and shriveled. His molars were visible and his eye was just a ball in the socket. "You don't, you don't mind it?"

She shook her head no and grabbed his hand, "Oh, Harvey, I need to talk to you. To someone. To anyone, really," she whispered, looking away. "I fought with Rachel that night at the party."

"I know," he nodded. "Because of Bruce?"

Aubrey nodded, "I wanted to let you know, though. And I really mean this: if she was going to pick anyone over my brother, I'm glad it was you."

He squeezed her hand, "Aubrey, you're a doll."

She smiled down at him, wiping at her eyes. She was still in her attire from the memorial, but her veil was pinned back.

"_He's a credible source - an A and M lawyer for a prestigious consultancy. He says he's waited as long as he can for the Batman to do the right thing,_" Aubrey's head shot up and looked at Harvey's TV. On screen was Coleman Reese, _their_ lawyer for their company, nodding his stupid head. _"Now he's taking matters into his own hands. We'll be live at five with the true identity of the Batman. Stay with us_."

Aubrey gasped. How did that little shit know? She groaned inwardly, thinking of all of the R&D files in the basement.

Gordon entered the room and Aubrey shut the TV off, moving so that Jim could have her chair as she sat on the other side of the room, smiling.

"I'm sorry about Rachel," he whispered, sitting down. When he got no response, he tried again, "The Doctor says you're in agonizing pain, but you won't accept medication. That you're refusing skin grafts-"

Harvey cut him off, "Remember the name you all had for me when I was at Internal Affairs? What was it, Gordon?"

Jim, shocked, nearly stuttered. "Harvey, I can't-"

"_Say it!_" Harvey shouted out. Both Aubrey and Jim jumped, shocked, as Jim answered: "Two face, Harvey two-face." He looked down, ashamed.

Harvey turned to face Jim and Aubrey saw the shock clear in her friend's eyes. "Why should I hide who I am?"

"I…I know you tried to warn me," Jim was so ashamed, "I'm sorry. Wuertz picked you up- was he working for them?" Harvey didn't answer, "Do you know who picked up Rachel?" He didn't answer again and Jim sighed, "Harvey, I need to know which of my men I can trust."

Harvey looked at Jim, eyes cold, "Why would you listen to me _now_?"

Sensing the tension in the room, Aubrey snuck out and made her way down to the payphone. She called Arkham's front desk and before the secretary could breathe, Aubrey was speaking, "Hi, this is Dr. Aubrey Wayne," she spoke quickly, "I need to be put in touch with either Dr. Strange or Dr. Arkham as soon as possible. Preferably Arkham and preferably now."

The phone was transferred to Jeremiah almost immediately, "Aubrey, are you alright?"

"I am quite fine," she shrugged, "I need to know how Jonathan is," she frowned.

"He's completely unresponsive because he has no idea where you were. I can get him to the phone and _you_ can talk to him and tell him you've been ill or something to see if it calms him."

"Please," she whispered. After a few moments, she heard a straggled breath, _"Aubrey_?"

"Oh, Jon," she choked out, happy tears in her eyes to hear his voice, "Oh, I've missed you so much. I should be there in a few days, sweetheart. I've been sick. But I'll be back to work in no time."

"You're _lying_!" he cried out.

"Okay, so I haven't been sick," she sighed, confessing. "But, I will be back soon. Before next week, I promise!"

He nodded to himself, "Okay, I love you, Bree."

"I love you, too. Tell Jeremiah I'll call him later."

"Okay, bye."

"Bye," she hung up the phone and made her way back to Harvey's room. She saw Jim was leaving, "He scare you away?" she asked lightly. Jim rolled his eyes, tense. Salvatore Maroni was walking on crutches near the two.

"What happened?" Aubrey whispered, curious. The mob still broke each other's legs?

"Batman," he growled out, "Dropped me from two stories up. Bastard. This craziness, this is too much."

"Well, you should have thought of that before you let the clown out of the box," Jim told him.

"You want him? I can tell you where he'll be this afternoon."

* * *

Bruce was still at home, watching GCN tonight. He had no idea what to do about this as Reese held his smug look as callers phoned in.

"_What I want to know is how much are they paying you to say who Batman is."_

"_That's not simply why I'm doing it," Reese answered. _

"_Caller, you're on the air," Engel switched to a new phone call._

"_Harvey Dent didn't want to give into this mad man…you think you know better than him?" They were angry._

"_Guys got a point, Dent didn't want Batman to give himself up," Engel agreed with the caller, "Is this really the right thing to do."_

"_If we could talk to Dent now, I'm sure he would feel differently," Reese answered, confidentially._

"_And we wish him a speedy recovery. God knows we all need him now. Let's take another call…" he switched into yet another phone call._

"_I had a _vision_, of a w_or_ld without Batman," the Joker's voice filled the screen. Reese began to look terrified. "The mob ground out a _little _profit and the police trie__d to shut them down, one block at a time. And it was so... __**boring**__. I've had a change of heart. I _don't _want Mr. Reese spoiling everything, but why should I have all the fun? Let's give someone else a chance. If Coleman Reese isn't dead in sixty minutes then I blow up a hospital."_

Bruce and Alfred began moving towards the elevator, "Where's Aubrey?"

"Last I recall, sir, she was visiting Dent."

Bruce groaned, "I'll try and get her. Try and get in touch with her. I need you plugged in, checking Gordon's men and their families."

"Looking for?"

"Hospital admissions."

"Will you be taking the batpod, sir?" Alfred asked, lightly.

"In the middle of the day, Alfred?" Bruce began to undo his die, "Not very subtle." "The Lamborghini then?" Alfred sighed once he was out of earshot, "Much more subtle."

Aubrey's phone buzzed as she watched Harvey sleep, _Where are you?_ She sighed and exited out of Bruce's text message before a second, identical message, came from Alfred. Shocked, she replied to both of them. Alfred never text messaged anyone. _In the hospital with Harvey,_ she sent.

Bruce replied first, _Get out now. As fast as you can_.

Aubrey, confused, hit the send button on her phone, "Bruce?" she whispered, "What's going on?"

"There should be police all over the place by now, evacuating the hospital," Aubrey poked her head outside and indeed, saw madness, "The Joker's going to blow one up. You have to get out of there," Aubrey turned to face away from the door.

"Let me wake Harvey up," she mumbled, moving towards the bed.

"There's no _time_ to wake Harvey up, the police will take care of Harvey. Get _out_ of there!" He shouted at her. Aubrey growled, walking into the hallway, "Don't you ever talk to me like that." She hung up the phone. She tapped a redheaded nurse on the shoulder, "Excuse me, miss, can you help me move Harvey Dent?"

The nurse followed her quietly and as they entered the room. She began to read Harvey's chart, blocking her face.

"I really don't think you need to read his chart," Aubrey interrupted, "This is very important, we have to move him."

An officer popped into the doorway, "Ma'am," he nodded towards Aubrey, "We're going to have to move him now," he spoke to the nurse. "Ma'am?" he stepped forward when she didn't answer and with no warning, the nurse spun around and pulled a gun from her dress, aiming it at the cop. She shot, dead on, and he fell.

Aubrey gasped, seeing the makeup on the nurse's face as she took her wig off. _Joker_. He smiled over at Aubrey, "Thanks _Aubrey_, you made it a lot easier to find him."

Harvey glared at her, "I thought he was a nurse!" Harvey rolled his eyes. As the Joker sat next to him, Aubrey made a move to step forward. He held up his hand, telling her to wait, and pointed over at a seat in the corner. Aubrey sat down, defeated.

Harvey fought with the cuffs restraining him to the bed as the Joker spoke up, "I don't want there to be any hard feelings between us, Harvey," he undid Harvey's restraints.

"When you and **uh…**"

"RACHEL!" Dent shouted.

"_Rachel_. Were being abducted, I was sitting in Gordon's cage! I didn't rig those charges," the Joker defended himself. Harvey glared, "Your men, your plan."

The Joker tilted his head, "Do I really look like a guy with a plan, Harvey?" He smacked his lips together. "I don't have a _plan_. See, the mob has plans…the _cops_ have plans…You know what I am, Harvey? I'm just a dog chasing cars. I wouldn't know what to do with one if I caught it!" He giggled, "I just _do_ things. I hate plans. Yours, theirs, everyone's. Maroni has plans. Gordon has plans. _Schemers_ trying to control their worlds. I'm not a schemer. I show the schemers how pathetic their attempts to control things really are. So when I say that you and your girlfriend was nothing personal, you know I'm telling the truth," he handed Harvey the pistol and made him aim it at the Joker's own head.

He pressed his forehead to the gun's barrel, "It's the _schemers_ who put you where you are. You _were_ a schemer, you _had_ plans. Look where it got you. I just did what I do best. I took your _plan_ and I turned it on itself. Look what I've done to this city with a few drums of gasoline and a couple of bullets. Nobody panics when things go according to _plan._ Even if the plan is horrifying! If I tell the **uh** press tomorrow that like, a gang banger is going to get shot or that a truck full of soldiers will be _blown up_, nobody panics. Because it's all a part of the plan. But when I say that one little old mayor will die, everybody loses their minds!"

"Or," he continued looking over at Aubrey in the corner, "I take Gotham's little _Princess _and turn her on those who cared the most for her," he chuckled, "And they turn on her. Introduce a little anarchy and upset the established order and everything becomes chaos. I'm an agent of chaos. And you know the thing about chaos, Harvey?" They looked into each other's eyes for a moment, "_It's fair_."

Harvey looked at the coin that he held in his hands. He turned it over and felt the comfort that it brought him. He showed the Joker the good side, "You live," he growled out. He turned it over and the other side was deeply scarred and burnt, much like Harvey himself, "You _die_."

Aubrey gasped, looking over at him. The Joker grinned, "Now you're talking."

Harvey tossed the coin into the air and before he opened his palm to see what it was, Aubrey squeezed her eyes shut. The next thing she knew, a hand had wrapped itself tightly around her wrist and she felt herself be pulled up and out of the room. There was a pause outside of Harvey's room and she heard the hand sanitizer dispenser be pushed. She looked. _The Joker_.

"What…"

"It landed on the good side. C'mon, toots, let's go," he grabbed her wrist again and pulled her down the abandoned hallway. He pulled out a detonator and pushed the button. Series of explosions went off behind them. Aubrey shrieked as he stayed perfectly calm. Once outside, the last explosion didn't go off. Frustrated, he began to hit the button like mad. He handed it to her, "You do it."

Her eyes wide, she shook her head.

"OH, come _on_, doll face. Everyone is out of it!"

Aubrey winced and closed her eyes as she smacked her hand down on the button. _Why not_? The explosion went off instantly like music to the Joker's ears. "Ah, magic fingers," he teased. He pushed her up onto the school bus, "You're coming with me again, Miss Wayne," he grinned behind her. Aubrey sighed and found a seat by the back. The Joker chuckled, sitting next to her.

* * *

"Sir, sir! Take a look at what we're dealing with. Cops, National Guard," a young officer was gesturing towards the school buses. "We're showing fifty missing," he whispered, "But that building was clear. These buses are heading off to other hospitals. My guess is that we missed one."

"Yea? Well, what's your guess about where Harvey Dent is?" The cop said nothing and Jim Gordon nodded, "Keep looking, keep it to yourself."

"And sir?"

"Yes, son?"

The officer was distraught, "There's no sign of Aubrey Wayne anywhere either."

Jim frowned, Aubrey wouldn't have still been with Harvey, would she? He sighed for a moment before whispering, "None?"

"No, one of the other officers said that he saw her in Dent's room and then she left and went back in with a nurse. He never saw either of them leave. Then, the building went off."

Jim looked down solemnly, "I'm sure she's fine. Just…just…you keep that to yourself, too. "


	14. Fourteen

**Authors Note: **Hey everyone, here's a new update! And just to let you know I am the WORST with addressing reviewers. I don't want you to think I don't like you, because believe me, I do! Your reviews are the best! So right now, I'm going to take the time to try and address as many as I can!

**Kykyxstandler **and **MienFacade** : Thank you for your continuous reviews, I'm so glad you've been liking the story!

**GracefulWolvesInTheNight** : 1: Yay, Joker! :D 2. When I read your comment about Harvey and Aubrey I was laughing so hard. Not because of the thought of Aubrey and Harvey, but because you said 'eep!' and I _always_ say eep, hahaha. Thanks for your reviews!

**Brittanymichele : **Thanks so much for your reviews. I'm really glad you like Aubrey! I've been trying to make her different from most stories so that she's not a total bad ass (which, believe me I like those stories haha) and so that she's not afraid of him. And I also love Jonathan Crane so I could _not_ just leave him out, haha!

Also to **Alix117**, **MoonDemon36**, and **XxNimith531xX **a big thank you for reading and reviewing!

If I left anyone out, I apologize! But, I hope that you enjoy this chapter! And, if anyone has any suggestions or ideas that they'd like to see in the story, just shoot me a PM! 3

_Disclaimer: I do not own anyone or anything except for my character._

* * *

Aubrey could see Chuckles up at the driver's seat. She smiled softly to herself because it seemed as if no one else had noticed yet. Mike Engel was a few rows ahead of her. She sighed, leaning back in her seat. The Joker smiled over at her, "I prefer you in your _own_ clothes," he mumbled, "They're **uh** much more _fitting_." His eyes glanced at her outfit approvingly. She was still in her dress from Rachel's memorial.

She stared at the back of the seat in front of her. Her mouth twitched up into a small smile before falling into it's normal position. He had just _complimented_ her. What was it with this man? He killed a friend of hers and then suddenly he was a sweetheart?

He took a sharp inhale of breath as he saw her vacant stare nearly burn through the leather seat in front of them. He turned to look out of the window, also glaring. When their bus veered off from all of the other ones, Mike Engel was the first one to notice something.

"What's going on?" His voice brought Aubrey's head up and out of the fog it'd been in. She glanced around until her eyes fell on him. He looked angry until the Joker's giggle filled the bus. Then, his eyes widened.

"I don't know **uh**," he giggled out, "Why don't you ask the _driver_** uh**?" As Engel's eyes locked onto the Joker they looked as if they were about to bulge out of his head.

The Joker turned to face Aubrey, "Where's your lawyer?"

"My lawyer?" she blinked, confused. "Oh," she spoke in a whisper, "For the company. Um, no idea."

The Joker rolled his eyes when his stolen phone went off. A single word sent in a text told him everything he needed to know. _Alive_. He threw the phone out of the window, deciding he'd get a new one later. "Phone, Ms. Wayne?"

Aubrey passed her Blackberry to him, frowning. "Bye phone," she sighed as the pink smart phone flew out of the window. "Go uh, get the other phones."

She looked at him as if to say _Say what?_ and he groaned, gesturing to two of his men to do it. A thug Aubrey hadn't yet met along with one that she had stood up and began to collect all of the phones in a bag before handing the bag to the Joker who threw it out of the window. The thug paused in front of Aubrey, noting how close his boss was to the girl. "She cool, boss?"

The Joker narrowed his eyes, "**Uh**, _yeah_." The thug went back to the front silently and remained there for the rest of the trip.

When the bus stopped, the Joker helped Aubrey out of the rear exit as some more of his thugs met him at the base of the Pruitt building. It was dark now, as they began unloading the hostages off of the bus.

"We found a bag of phones on the highway," a young officer told Gordon. "All of the phones have been claimed by family members and the missing hostages have been accounted for as the owners."

"So we know who is missing now?"

"Yes. And there were two phones with no owners in the hospital. They were dropped a bit further up the road than the others," he handed the two phones in separate evidence baggies to Jim.

"This is a drop phone," Jim mumbled, handing a beat up flip phone back to the officer, "Most likely our clown's." He then turned his attention to the other phone. He nearly screamed, anger coursing through his body as he tried not to throw it, "And this is Aubrey Wayne's!"

"He's got Aubrey again," Bruce whispered, looking down, "If I don't save her this time Alfred, I'm afraid that I'm going to lose her forever."

"She's your sister, Master Bruce, you can never really lose her. And if you can, you're bound by blood. You will always be able to get her back.

As all of the other hostages were sat around on two floors, Aubrey was led to the top floor by the Joker. She walked through the hostages bound with guns in their hands and saw some of the thugs putting masks on them. Aubrey frowned when she realized that the thugs were dressed up as doctors.

As they entered an office on the top floor, Aubrey was greeted by cold, wet noses sniffing at her ankles. She held in a small giggle as (formerly the Chechen's) dogs circled around her before letting their tongues fall out of their mouths as they breathed heavily, small tails wagging. She fell to her knees and scratched the tops of their heads, "Hi, babies," she smiled. The Joker tilted his head, completely confused. It had taken him two hours to get anywhere near the dogs.

He dropped down to his knees next to her with a smirk, "Funny how we keep running into each other like this, isn't it?"

"You mean funny how you keep taking me?" she looked over at him, raising an eyebrow up as the dog ran away.

"I didn't take you. Not this time."

"Oh?"

"No. Uh, you came kind of _willingly_ this time. I _saved_ you from that explosion."

"You saved me from an explosion which you rigged," she rolled her eyes as she stood up and made her way over to the couch against the wall. She plopped down on it, savoring how comfortable it was in comparison to how the bus seat had felt. "And you threw my phone out!"

He walked over to where she was, sitting next to her, "Habit."

She sighed, leaning her head onto his shoulder. He tensed for a moment, looking at her with wide eyes before relaxing a bit. "So much for befriending the good in Gotham," she mumbled more to herself than to him. "Guess, I've had two bad days."

He was quiet for a moment, processing what she'd said. "Even after what I did to Miss _Dawes_?" he questioned. His voice still held a hint of a playful tone, but it was obvious that her statement had shocked him.

She laughed nervously, moving her head away from his and looking towards the other side of the room, "Weird, right?"

"Ex_treme_ly."

She gave a small chuckle. He pursed his lips before speaking carefully, "And how are we feeling about the Batman lately?"

Out of the corner of his eye he saw a small scowl grace her pretty face. He smirked, "Not so good, **huh**?"

"Not really," she frowned, "What kind of a hero would…" she sighed, "Never mind."

He snickered to himself, turning to face her. He leaned down, his forehead on hers, his eyes dark. She scrunched her nose up at the feeling of the cold, wet face paint. He chuckled, "Do you want him to save you?"

She looked back into the darkness of his eyes, trying to find the brown color she'd seen there once before. When she found it, she answered, "Not right now, I don't."

He let out a _hmm_, and before she knew it, he was kissing her.

The face paint made his face slippery and his kiss was a lot sloppier. However, Aubrey gladly returned it.

She was oddly comforted by this man. Even after everything he had put her through; the thought of Jim being dead (murdered by him) and him killing her best friend. He had even turned her against her own brother without even realizing it. Though, it was Bruce and Bruce alone that had hurt her the most. Where had he been when she had needed him to save her?

She kissed him back, which didn't surprise him as much as it had the first time. What did surprise him however was that her tongue was the first to venture into the other's mouth. He placed his hands behind her head as if to keep her there - as if she was going to suddenly change her mind and run. He threw his gloves to the side after a moment before replacing his hands into her hair.

Aubrey giggled, breaking the kiss and rubbing her nose against his before looking up at him from under her eyelashes. He growled, losing any control he had formerly had.

He pushed her backwards onto the couch and climbed on top of her, murmuring her name as he lightly rubbed his face against hers. He kissed her again passionately. She gasped lightly as his fingers traced the bottom of her stomach before drumming on it lightly.

She was pushing his jacket off of him as he kicked his shoes off. Never breaking the kiss, Aubrey's fingers fumbled with the buttons of his vest. She pushed that off as well as he pulled his suspenders down. As he kissed her neck, her hands found their way to his tie, loosening it and pulling it over his head before finding their way to his shirt buttons and his hands traced their way up to the top of her tights. Once there, he pulled them down. She got rid of her shoes and used her feet to pull the rest of her tights off. He threw his shirt behind him once she'd finished unbuttoning it. Her hands ran along the scars on his chest lightly as his hand found the back of her dress and unzipped it, pulling it down.

She lay there in a black strapless bra and plain black underwear peaking up at him from underneath the funeral veil. It had fallen back down a bit, covering her eyes. He smirked down at her, thinking to himself that he'd never seen more attractive funeral wear. He dipped his head down, kissing her neck. She let out a soft moan, tilting her head back. Her hands were by the top of his pants, but she seemed hesitant to do anything.

He bit on her collarbone, causing her to scratch him. Each of them let out a groan. He undid her bra and threw it across the room before letting his mouth wander over her chest.

He was aching for her; he hadn't been with a woman in such a long time and Aubrey Wayne was definitely one of the most beautiful women he had ever seen. The longer that she hesitated, the more his longing began to ache. She let out a sigh of relief, as if she had come to a decision and fumbled with his pants button for a moment before unzipping them.

The Joker was out of them in an instant and he yanked Aubrey's underwear off before shimmying out of his own. Within a moment, they were each naked atop of one another, hands wandering. Unable to take it any longer, the Joker finally put his hands on her legs and spread them apart as he steadied himself above her. He looked into her eyes and saw the lust and confusion in them. He also saw a cloud of…fear? When she smiled softly, he pushed himself into her without anymore doubts.

She choked on air, biting her lip hard. She hadn't been ready for it and she felt as if the wind had been knocked out of her. Eyes squinted shut, she continued to bite her lip. After a few moments, she relaxed underneath him. Her moans became clearer to him and her body began to move with him to meet his thrusts. He began to move faster, peaking a look at her.

Her hair was splayed out around her head on the couch and her eyes were shut as her mouth fell open. Beads of sweat were dotted along her forehead. As she arched her back and cried out, the Joker groaned - a low, guttural noise as he finished.

He let her lie there for awhile after he got dressed. He had noticed the blood that had formed on the couch between her legs and it instantly clicked in his mind that Aubrey Wayne had never been with a man before. He snickered to himself before turning to her and nudging her awake. He made her get dressed before he went to go and stand by the window.

Aubrey stayed on the couch after she had gotten dressed, lying like a corpse. She hadn't moved since he'd woken her up and she had barely even blinked. One hand on her stomach and one hand off of the couch, she stared out of the window at the Gotham City skyline. The Joker stood in the window off to the side, looking out at the same sight.

She sighed lightly, her eyes darting over to him to scan him over. Even with his bizarre sense of fashion (A purple overcoat? Really? How _Prince_) she could not help but find herself strangely attracted to him. To most people it probably would have seemed absolutely _insane. _Even if the Joker wasn't as violent and uh, eccentric as one would say. His fashion sense was a little odd and the way that his voice fluctuated struck most people as odd. Along with that, his scars would have thrown most people off, but Aubrey couldn't help but find herself drawn to them.

As she made a move to get off of the couch, the Joker walked over and stood, his back to her, "Stay there," he mumbled, "The bat's downstairs." And with a whistle, the dogs came to surround and protect the two of them.


	15. Fifteen

**Author's Note: Sorry for the delay everyone, but here you go. I hope you enjoy it! Also, I do not own Batman or anything from DC. :)  
**

* * *

As Bruce made his way through the hostages, he looked for his sister, ripping off clown masks. She was nowhere to be found anywhere in the group. He looked upwards at the ceiling towards the floor above him. His scanner picked up two bodies along with three dogs. Growling, he moved upstairs. Once up there, he looked around. His sister was on the couch, staring blankly ahead as the Joker stood by her with the dogs at his feet.

"_Aubrey!"_ he growled out.

"Oh, good you made it," the Joker grinned, "_Go get him_."

The dogs leaped at him and Aubrey sat up with a gasp, eyes widening as the realization of who the dogs were attacking came into her body, _Bruce_.

"A-tatatata," the Joker pushed her back onto the couch, "He's not here for you."

As Batman got rid of the dogs quickly, the Joker frowned. Hadn't the Chechen's -er, well, _his_ new men told him that the Bat had been slowed down significantly by the dogs? The Batman turned to face the two, _"Aubrey_," he repeated.

"She doesn't want you to save her, Bats," the Joker giggled at him, "Don't you see? She's _my_ princess _now."_

Batman dove for the Joker and Aubrey squinted her eyes shut. A light crash filled her ears and then a buzzing noise. She opened one eye to see the two men fighting off on the other side of the room. What was that buzzing noise?

Her phone lay on the ground, the screen lit up. Her phone? How had that gotten here? She glanced over at the struggle and assumed that Jim must have given it to Batman. She beamed, forgetting about the fight for a moment as she grabbed it and pressed the answer button.

"Hello?" she asked, confused.

"_Aubrey_," a voice filled with relief answered her.

"_Harvey?_" she asked, shocked.

"I need you to come here now."

She glanced back over at the fight, "Um, Harv, I'm really sorry, but I'm kind of busy right no-"

"_Now_!" he snapped at her.

She jumped a bit in her seat. She'd never heard Harvey speak like that before. "Where? And why?"

"I need to show you something," he growled out. "250 52nd Street." The phone beeped as he hung up. She frowned, this couldn't be good. She glanced back over at the fight and snuck off easily, the two men too into their fight to stop her.

She had hesitated for a moment, but realized that Bruce was too strong for the Joker to kill and he wouldn't kill the Joker anyways.

A SWAT member of the GCPD nearly tackled her as she left the building. She screamed shrilly at the sneak attack and jumped away, the man landing on the ground in a heap.

"Miss Wayne?" he looked up, confused.

"Where's Gordon?" she asked.

The man pointed towards where Jim was getting in his car. She rushed over, calling his name out. He turned around to face her and smiled a little, hugging her, "Aubrey! I'm so glad you're okay." He then frowned at her, "I have to go. I'm sorry. Harvey has…has my family…"

Aubrey frowned, "I just spoke to Harvey. He wants me to go where Rachel died."

Jim looked at her for a moment before sighing, "Get in the car."

As Jim and Aubrey ran up to where Harvey was, Aubrey's jaw dropped at the sight of Barbara Gordon on the ground, arms wrapped around her children. She stepped forward and Harvey moved out of the shadows, gun drawn.

Aubrey stepped backwards, inching closer to Jim.

"I needed to show you," Harvey looked into her eyes. All of the pain and anger in his eyes caused her heart to break. Instantly, she felt the guilt in the pit of her stomach that came from her actions. The Joker had done all of this, and not only to just Harvey, but to all of them. And she had _slept_ with him.

"I needed to show you," he repeated, "What he did to me, Bree." Her eyes watered at the name that only Rachel had ever used to call her before it had caught on, "Because he's going to do it to you, too." His scowl grew, "He's going to take everything from you and then turn you on whatever's left."

"Well, why did he turn you on me, Harvey?" she whispered to him, eyes softening as she stepped forward, "What do you have against me?"

His eyes softened for a moment before the fire blazed in them again and his grip on the gun grew stronger, "You're compassionate to him."

Aubrey blinked, bewildered, "I am not!"

"Oh, please, Aubrey. You're compassionate to everyone. What did he do? Cry about his scars and you just _melted_ for him instantly? That's what Crane did, wasn't it? Cried about his father and how he never had anyone and you fell for it. You eat that shit up, Aubrey."

"It's not my fault that I have a heart, Harvey," she felt her jaw tighten as her eyes glossed over, "And it's not my fault that you're so _weak_."

Harvey blinked as Jim looked over to Aubrey. She was never very mean to anyone, but the way that she was speaking to Harvey was so defensive - so cruel, that it was shocking for all of them.

"That's right," she laughed now, lightly, "You're _weak_. You're _pathetic_, if you want me to get technical. Rachel never would have chosen you if she had seen you like this," her voice was darker, lower. "She would have _hated_ you as much as she hated the clown. You're just like him, on so many levels."

He glared daggers at her as she continued speaking. "So put Jimmy down. And point the guns at those of us who are responsible. Or are you so much of a coward that you can only threaten a child?"

Harvey looked ready to snap as he moved his gun, "I will point it at those responsible." The gun was aimed at a weird angle. No longer pointed at Jimmy, but in between Jim and Aubrey. She glanced to see who it was pointed at and noticed Batman had shown up. _Well_, she thought,_ Guess I know them both better than I thought_.

Harvey tossed a coin into the air and as it landed, he pulled the trigger, hitting the Batman in the chest. Aubrey felt as if she'd been punched in the gut as she stared in shock, "NO!"

"Suddenly find the good side, Aubrey?" he pointed the gun at her and tossed the coin. She felt her heart beating in her head. When it landed, nothing happened. He repeated the action with himself and again did nothing. Aubrey recognized the coin as the one that Harvey claimed to be his "lucky" coin. It had been a double sided coin that had had one side burnt terribly in the fire that claimed Rachel.

He turned the gun on Jim Gordon, now. "Tell your boy it's gonna be alright, Gordon. Lie. Like I lied."

Jim took a shaky breath, "Everything's going to be alright, son." Aubrey could see the tears in Jim's eyes as he spoke. The coin was tossed, but Harvey never caught it.

The Batman tackled him off the ledge. Barbara Gordon and Aubrey each screamed - Harvey had still been holding Jimmy.

Aubrey raced over to the ledge and helped Jim pull his son out of Batman's arms. He was holding onto the ledge with both hands. Once Jimmy was safely on the ground, Aubrey turned to face her brother, grabbing each of his hands in one of her own. She braced herself against the ground as she pulled, but it wasn't helping as she began to slide off.

She squeaked, eyes locking with her brother's as she fell off of the ledge and he followed after her.

* * *

The Joker tapped his fingers on the desk in front of him, studying his surroundings. He was currently being held in an observation room at Arkham Asylum and he was tickled pink, because he knew that the standard procedure was that he was to be evaluated by the Head of Psychiatry and at this particular institution, the head of that department was his favorite plaything.

However, when the door opened to the room and Jeremiah Arkham stepped in, the Joker frowned instantly. "Uh, you're not Aubrey."

Arkham sat down, smiling falsely, "No."

"I thought the Head of _Psychiatry _was supposed to evaluate me. Uh, isn't that standard procedure, doc? Cause uh you're not _her_."

"You're a special case which doesn't usually call for standard procedure."

He raised an eyebrow, his voice darker, "Where is she?"

"She took some time off."

A screaming man, clad in a straitjacket was escorted down the hall screaming just outside of the room, asking the same question the Joker just had.

The Joker smirked, "Uh, Dr. Crane doesn't buy it either."

"Doc- Jonathan Crane is a patient here," Arkham spoke calmly to the clown. "He was given a highly concentrated overdose of his-"

"Okay," the Joker interrupted, annoyed with this. "You're not going to tell me," he paused to lick at his mouth, "But I'll find out."

* * *

"Aubrey," Bruce frowned at the sight of his sister. She lay in a nice clean hospital bed, machines beeping. Harvey Dent was dead - his body had been too weak to handle the fall. Bruce was okay, just bruised up. And Aubrey hadn't woken up in two days. She had fallen on top of Bruce as he'd grabbed her in mid air, but at the impact of the fall her head had smashed onto his chest plate.

He kissed the top of her head, looking around at all of the flowers that had accumulated. He added a third vase from himself and sat down in the chair that he'd been in for two days. He put his face in his hands, rubbing the stubble on his chin

Her heartbeat monitor was beating steadily as her chest rose up and down. He sighed, "I love you." He whispered allowed to the quiet room, "Please don't leave me, Aubrey. Please, I can't lose you on top of everyone else." He felt a tear roll down his cheek as he closed his eyes, "I need you, sis."


End file.
